Bahrain is to stock up on an alternative anti-influenza drug known as Relenza to ensure it will be able to treat strains of swine flu that are resistant to Tamiflu, it has emerged.

The country is in the process of acquiring the drug zanamivir, marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Relenza.

However, the volume of drugs required has not been decided yet, said Salmaniya Medical Complex infection control head Dr Jameela Al Salman.

'Tamiflu is still working, but we are in the process of getting Relenza,' she told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News.

'We have still not decided how much we will need but it is based on international data.'

The move follows reports by the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) that a strain of swine flu that is resistant to treatment with the drug Tamiflu has been discovered near the US-Mexican border.

PAHO officials said a few cases had been observed in El Paso and close to McAllen, Texas.

Cases of A (H1N1) that were resistant to the anti-viral drug have also been found in the US, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan, say reports.

Experts suspect the resistance was likely due to overuse of anti-influenza treatments like Tamiflu.

Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, has said it expects a 0.5 per cent rate of case resistance based on clinical trials.

Dr Al Salman said most H1N1 cases in the world responded to Tamiflu, but a small percentage showed resistance.

'In any pandemic there will be some resistant cases. The resistance is in scattered cases, not a big number,' she said.

'So far internationally Tamiflu is the drug of choice. If we do get any resistant cases hopefully it will just be a few.'

To date, all Bahrain patients with the H1N1 virus have responded to Tamiflu treatment, which is given twice a day for five days.

Dr Al Salman said earlier that it was vital patients completed the five-day course of Tamiflu because H1N1 was an influenza A strain that could cause complications that may be life-threatening.

She added that failing to complete the course could cause the patient to become resistant to Tamiflu treatment in the future.-TradeArabia News Service