TORONTO — A flu drug expert says details about North America’s first reported case of pandemic H1N1 viruses resistant to Tamiflu shows the risk of giving it to people to prevent them from getting ill.
Dr. Guy Boivin of Laval University is reporting on the case in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
A man with chronic lung disease was given the drug to prevent him from getting sick after his 13-year-old son contracted H1N1. Within 24 hours of starting the drug the man started experiencing the symptoms of flu, suggesting he was sick when he started taking the drug.
Boivin says if doctors do give people Tamiflu to prevent flu they should monitor them and switch them to a full treatment dose if they become ill.