Mutated Swine Flu in City Raises Concerns

Recently, I have heard the term "Hydra" applied to the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic, meaning that the disease has developed to the point where it could take any one out of several possible paths (represented by the multiple heads of the "Hydra"). I'm not sure how accurate any of that is, but reading articles like the one below makes you wonder if we aren't seeing the beginnings of a significant change.

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Mutated Swine Flu in City Raises Concerns -- Baltimoresun.com: "A mutated strain resistant to the most commonly prescribed drug used to treat swine flu has surfaced in Baltimore, raising concern among experts that the virus could become harder to treat.

The cases of two cancer patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital who contracted the mutated strain are the first involving Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 in Maryland and are among 75 worldwide.

Health officials, noting that the Hopkins patients recovered, say there is no cause for alarm because the cases are isolated and have not spread. But the local cases, diagnosed in October and November, come on the heels of similar mutations found last week in four cancer patients at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina - three of whom died - and in another cluster of patients at a hospital in Wales..."