?Tough? H1N1 virus beats treatment
Sumitra Deb Roy,TNN | Nov 10, 2014, 11.33 PM IST
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The patient, a known case of diabetes and hypertension, was restarted on another five-day course of oseltamivir, which was followed by another swab test. "This time, too, the patient was shedding the virus much to our astonishment. And this was 10 days after treating her with the most effective antiviral available to us. Surprisingly, on the other hand, her health condition was getting better," said infectious disease expert Dr Om Srivastava, who treated the patient and co-authored the paper. The doctors continued to test the patient every five days till she tested negative after one full month.
"Thirty days is a long time for a virus to be present despite being treated with the best drugs. The public heath ramifications of the virus shedding can be overwhelming. Most importantly, the patient became asymptomatic but continued shedding the virus," said Dr Jayanti Shastri, head of microbiology at BYL Nair Hospital and co-author of the paper...
