Osaka fails to report swine flu mutation

An Osaka health official found a genetic mutation of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu on June 18 — nearly two weeks before the "first" finding was reported in Denmark — but failed to disclose it, the health ministry said Thursday.

The mutation, found in a woman in her 40s in Toyonaka who caught the H1N1 influenza A virus in May, is the first reported case of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu in Japan.

The World Health Organization declared the new flu a pandemic on June 11.

The case "is considered to pose no public health threat, given no infections have been confirmed around her," an official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.

Nationwide, swine flu cases have topped 1,500, surfacing in 44 prefectures, but none has been fatal, the ministry said.

At an unscheduled press conference called around midnight Wednesday, Tetsuro Noda, chief of health issues related to infectious diseases at the Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health, was inundated with questions about why he failed to promptly report the discovery.

"The virus was dead in the patient and we judged it unnecessary to report it swiftly," Noda said. "In terms of public health, I didn't think it was a serious case and I feel sorry for the delay in the disclosure."

Osaka Prefecture said the woman carrying the Tamiflu-resistant strain recovered after being treated with Relenza, another antiviral drug.

The prefecture confirmed the genetic mutation on June 18 but did not report it to the health ministry until Wednesday, even though no other cases of Tamiflu-resistance had been reported worldwide. It was told to tell the public the next day.