Swine Flu Virus Revealed (with Photos). Scientists have snapped the first ever portrait of H1N1, the new swine flu virus that has swept the globe in recent weeks. SCIENTISTS today warned of a deadly new flu virus which has become resistant to drugs.
The H1N1 “A” virus is a strain that causes common seasonal flu outbreaks.
But it carries an altered gene that makes it resistant to certain drugs.
Doctors fear it could seriously threaten hospital patients with weakened immune systems.
Two separate teams of researchers highlighted the danger in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama).
A Dutch group led by Dr Jairo Gooskens, from Leiden University Medical Centre, said the rapid spread of resistant H1N1 flu strains had been observed since January 2008.
And a US team led by Dr Nila Dharan, from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, found that 12 per cent of influenza A (H1N1) viruses tested during the 2007-2008 flu season were resistant to drug Tamiflu.
But preliminary findings from the 2008-2009 season suggested much higher levels of Tamiflu resistance.
A virus cell (such as the H1N1 swine flu cells above) is made up of a core that contains genetic material, which is surrounded by a protein-filled coat that allows the virus to catch onto and invade target cells. Each cell measures about one-ten-thousandth of a millimeter wide.
The samples, obtained from an infected patient in California, were photographed on April 27, 2009, at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
As of May 4, 2009, 286 people have swine flu in the United States, according to the CDC. Twenty countries have seen nearly a thousand instances of swine flu, the World Health Organization reported.
The new virus is similar to flu viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America. But H1N1 has genes from European and Asian pigs, as well as from birds and humans, which makes the virus a very different organism, experts say.
"It's a situation where we should be cautious but not panicky," Susan Rehm, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said on April 29.
"From what we understand so far, the severity doesn't seem to be much different than what it is in regular seasonal influenza."
—Christine Dell'Amore
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