Since the alarm bells ringing in Mexico last April 30, the virus has spread around the world, but not yet considered by WHO as a pandemic. There are more than 5,700 infected in 33 countries, according to the organization in Spain, has already reached the hundreds of patients.

Hartl has stressed that the priority of the WHO remains to determine the risk of the new virus, to assess their development and help countries prepare for a pandemic.

Adrian Gibss scientist, who participated in the formulation of the antiviral oseltamivir (Tamiflu), used in the treatment of the new flu, said that the genetic characteristics of H1N1 viruses would suggest that was grown in eggs, a method used in laboratories.

For his part, Dr Sylvie Briand, expert from influenza program of WHO, has responded to reports of a suspected virus resistance to both oseltamivir and zanamivir, the other drug considered effective for influenza A.

Confused with seasonal flu

“The virus reacts to the two drugs”, has confirmed Briand, who explained that doubts are due to be confused with seasonal flu, “the previous year and showed some resistance” to these antivirals.

With regard to the possibility that this new virus is less dangerous than feared, the expert said that he is comparing the causes of the pandemic of 1918 and acknowledged that two viruses appear to be “different characteristics.”

“But that’s not enough to say that this is a mild virus because it is quite new,” he added, to remind you also know “how people react to new pathogens.”

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.”