First Case Of Tamiflu-Resistant Swine Flu Spreading

Nothing like a party-crashing, drug-resistant swine flu bug to put a damper on summer camp.

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Go easy on the Tamiflu.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Go easy on the Tamiflu.

Two teenage girls who roomed together at Camp Blue Star in western North Carolina may have shared more than good times, according to the latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Health authorities say a mutated form of the H1N1 flu virus resistant to Tamiflu, a drug used to treat and sometimes to prevent its spread, may have passed between the cabin mates. It's also possible they caught it from a third person.

In any event, it's the first time scientists have found a drug-resistant swine flu virus that probably spread from one person to another.

More than 600 people at the camp were given Tamiflu after a few people at the camp got sick with flu-like symptoms in June. The flu broke out anyway.

The findings underscore the need for caution in giving Tamiflu to lots of people to curb the spread of H1N1. Overuse of the drug could lead more quickly to resistant strains of swine flu.