USA Today reported that “Health authorities said they detected 4 cases of influenza A resistant to Tamiflu antiviral, and initiated an investigation to confirm a possible mutation of the virus. The cases were confirmed at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, where four patients who were infected with influenza A in October did not respond to the antiviral.

Three patients treated with medication died and the fourth had an improvement with the help of another antiviral, Relenza.

Dr. Daniel Sexton, Research Director, said that “the four showed the same pattern of drug resistance, and were admitted in serious condition in the hospital wing dedicated to cancer patients and blood diseases as authorities confirmed they had developed Tamiflu immunity.

Dr. Sexton added that “the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed samples of the virus from each of the four patients to see if they are identical. In that case, it would be the first time that Tamiflu-resistant virus was transmitted from person to person. ”

Anne Schuchat, director of the Center for Respiratory Diseases of the CDC, said today that the agency has so far recorded a dozen antiviral-resistant cases, but always in isolation, as indicated, detecting a group of people who are found together is a sign of transmission.”

Experts from the CDC and the Department of Health look for signs of infection of this variant of the virus in Durham area and North Carolina.

While British authorities reported today a similar case in a hospital in Wales, when ‘found a group of five patients resistant to the antiviral influenza A, and are studying four other cases that show the same trend’