Surprise! Surprise!

Politics and public health should not mix. There have been reports of resistance to Tamiflu by avian strains of flu for at least two years. With most flu seeming to start its annual rounds in the far east it is not surprising that such resistance should appear as new annual strains of flue make their way to the U.S. This has been the Achilles heel of pandemic planning with HHS recommending, and states paying to store Tamiflu. The politics of homeland security trump epidemiology every time. Joseph Bresee, M.D., chief of influenza epidemiology and prevention at the CDC, said that the "emergence of Tamiflu-resistant strains that can spread easily from one person to another makes it more difficult for doctors to use drugs to treat people who are at high risk of severe flu complications, such as pneumonia." There were reports last year from Europe and other countries that a certain type of flu -- H1N1 -- was resistant to oseltamivir, according to Dr. Joseph Bresee.