Norwegian health authorities said Friday they have discovered a potentially significant mutation in the H1N1 influenza strain that could be responsible for causing the severest symptoms among those infected.
“The mutation could be affecting the virus’ ability to go deeper into the respiratory system, thus causing more serious illness,” the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said in a statement.

The concern over mutation of the H1N1 virus came as health officials said the H1N1 virus is moving eastwards across Europe and Asia after appearing to peak in parts of western Europe and the United States, the World Health Organization(WHO) said on Friday.
There are “early signs of a peak in disease activity in some areas of the northern hemisphere,” the WHO said in a statement Friday.

At least 6,770 deaths have been recorded worldwide since the swine flu virus emerged in April, according to the latest WHO update which showed 520 known fatalities in the past week.

Authorities added they had no reason to believe the mutation had any implication for the effect of flu vaccines or antiviral drugs made by groups such as Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis or AstraZeneca.

In Norway the mutation was found in the bodies of two people killed by the virus and of one person made seriously ill.Click here to continue reading. Source: MSNBC.com
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