H7N9, the most recent influenza virus, is behaving like SARS. The virus has mutated and is impervious to the most effective drug available on the planet.
The British medical journal Lancet published research today citing clinical cases of this resistance to treatment using Tamiflu and other drugs on people affected with H7N9, according to The Times of India. This development has created a very real concern surrounding the mutated virus, causing rational reason to believe it may lead to a huge epidemic.
When several patients with the virus admitted to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre saw no response to antiviral drugs, genetic testing confirmed that the H7N9 virus in these patients had become resistant to treatment. The study of these patients, along with 11 others was conducted by Dr. Zhenghong Yuang of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University and Dr. Malik Peiris of the University of Hong Kong and resulted in the concern about this virus. Following the infection, all of the patients in the study developed pneumonia. Seven of the patients became ill enough to require mechanical ventilation, and three further patients became so critical that they required Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), additional oxygen needed to be pumped into the blood. Two died and a third was still dependent on ECMO at the time the study was submitted.
This is not the first report like this, further backing the very real fear of the SARS-like virus. Its symptoms attack the respiratory system and include fever and a cough, and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Though not strictly identified as a mutation of the H7N9 virus, cases of a new SARS-like virus have been identified in eight countries including France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom recently. It is "a threat to the entire world," said the director-general of the United Nations' World Health Organization according CNN. Some researchers, calling it novel coronavirus is mysterious and popping up in different forms in humans all over the world. At the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday, Margaret Chen said, "We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond," She went on to explain how little is known, and how great the potential threat of the virus is.
Though it is has not presented any cases in the United States yet, infectious disease experts believe it is likely to occur eventually.