Researchers in Hong Kong will try to harvest antibodies from recovered swine flu patients in the hope of using them to treat people who become seriously ill with the disease this winter, according to Reuters. They expect the virus to infect more people in the coming winter months, which means more people could get seriously ill, need intensive hospital care or die. "Antibodies will specifically target swine flu. It is very specific. We expect it to be able to eradicate the virus," Ivan Hung, clinical assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of medicine, said in an interview. Health authorities have begun recruiting recovered swine flu patients in the hope of harvesting antibodies that will specifically target the H1N1 virus. This is important especially after some recent H1N1 samples were found to be resistant to the anti-viral drug oseltamivir, or Tamiflu, which is manufactured by Roche AG. Hung said H1N1 specific antibodies would be useful for people on whom another anti-viral drug zanamivir, sold by GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name Relenza, is difficult to administer. Zanamivir is inhaled and that is difficult for people with pneumonia. Hung said it will be important to have more than one way to treat patients as flu season worsens in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has had nearly 13,000 confirmed cases of swine flu, but experts agree such figures are meaningless because many cases are very mild and go untested and undiagnosed. Ten people have died in the densely populated city.
