Mexican flu update:17-year-old boy died in the Netherlands, mutation discovered and free Tamiflu.
A seventeen-year-old boy has died in the Netherlands from swine flu.
The boy was already seriously ill when he got the flu. It is the first time in the Netherlands that a patient who is infected with the virus also dies from it. In the Netherlands there have so far been nine victims of the Mexican flu hospitalized
The number of patients with the flu has also increased considerably; at least 663 Dutch people are infected. Of that number, 151 patients contracted the virus in the Netherlands, the rest elsewhere. On Friday, the counter was still at 500 flu patients.
Mutation detected
US health services have a mutation of swine flu found resistant to the virus inhibitor Tamiflu. Patients on the border between Mexico and America, where the virus first emerged, are no longer responding to the drug.
Free Tamiflu
From August 3, 2009, Tamiflu will be available for free on doctor's prescription. Minister Ab Klink (CDA) of Public Health will have the virus inhibitor distributed at all pharmacies this week. Until now, people who pick up Tamiflu via a prescription from their doctor have to pay a few tens for it. The ministry is still looking at whether there will be compensation for this group of people.
