A man aged 31 has died in Andalusia by complications from a mutation of the influenza virus A, ‘D222G’, becoming the second death in Spain by this alteration of the H1N1 virus first detected in Norway, as reports in its latest weekly report from the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
This patient, who had no medical history, eventually dying of multiple organ failure after several complications, reports the monitoring system sentinel physicians, which however does not specify the time of death. However, sources with the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, consulted by Europa Press, claim that this mutation is “expected” behavior according to each year have the flu virus.
This mutation has been detected in other countries around the world, although its significance is not fully defined, could enhance the virus would “infect it easier to lower areas of the respiratory tract, the Surveillance Network reported in its latest report, on the week of 20 to 26 December.
The first fatality in this mutation was announced by the director general of Health and Foreign Health, Ildefonso Hernandez, on 4 December, detected in a 35 in Catalonia with associated pathologies that eventually died after being in serious condition.
Moreover, these two deaths have to add three more cases of this same mutation in the H1N1 virus, one in a man of 31 years of Catalonia, which evolved without problems, one in Castilla-La Mancha in a woman of 28 years and another in Galicia in a man of 27 years, the last two without knowledge of risk factors and their subsequent evolution.
The National Epidemiological Surveillance Network also reported more than 40 mutations ‘D222E’, of which the National Microbiology Center (NMC) has found its presence in 34 patients from Castilla-La Mancha, Ceuta, Galicia, Madrid, Melilla and Navarre. In addition, Andalusia and Asturias have identified in 6 and 1 cases respectively.
The mutation of RNA affects the viral envelope in a place near the junction of the receiver to the bronchial epithelial cell, although “the significance of this change in the receptor-binding site is highly questionable,” the authors explain the report, “data from patients who have can be very helpful in trying to interpret if you have any functionality.”
RESISTANCE Tamiflu
Furthermore, this center under the Carlos III also reports of two cases known as oseltamivir-resistant virus, the antiviral used to combat new flu Roche markets under the name ‘Tamilfu’.
One of them was detected in Catalonia in a man of 66, as previously reported by the Director General of Public Health and Foreign Health, and another in a girl of 14 months in the Basque Country, both risk factors. After being admitted to the ICU and treated with oseltamivir for five days and subsequently were discharged after recovery.
As explained by Professor Jose Lopez Aldeguer, member of the Spanish Society for Infectious Diseases (SEIMC), this behavior is “not unusual” and “does not seem particularly serious,” he told Europa Press, as the forecasts suggest that the influenza season will continue with “the same intensity that so far is showing in Spain.”
Tags: H1N1, influenza, influenza A virus, TamiFlu, virus, virus mutation