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Costa
Rica
Records
First
Victim
of
H2N2
Virus
The
seasonal
flu
virus
called
H3N2
has
claimed
its
first
victim
of
the
year
in
Costa
Rica,
when
a 30
year
old
man
from
Curridabat,
died
on
on
Wednesday.
Maria
Ethel
Trejos,
director
of
Vigilancia
de
la
Salud
(Ministerio
de
Salud),
said
the
man
was
asthmatic
and
suffered
from
an
immune
deficiency
problem.
The
young
man
was
in
Perez
Zeledon,
who
died
in
the
Escalante
Pradilla
hospital.
This
death
is
in
addition
to
the
two
H1N1
deaths
of
January
12
and
14,
the
latter,
after
the
pandemic,
became
a
seasonal
influenza
virus.
Trejos
said
that
in
the
three
cases
the
patients
sought
medical
treatment
too
late
and
that
is
important
for
the
public
not
to
let
down
their
guard
and
practice
good
hygiene
and
sneezing
and
coughing
protocols.
The
Influenza
A
virus
subtype
H3N2
(also
H3N2)
is
not
new.
It
is a
subtype
of
viruses
that
causes
influenza
(flu).
H3N2
Viruses
can
infect
birds
and
mammals.
In
birds,
humans,
and
pigs,
the
virus
has
mutated
into
many
strains.
H3N2
is
increasingly
abundant
in
seasonal
influenza,
which
kills
thousands
each
year.
In
the
last
half
of
2011,
a
dozen
human
cases
of a
new
variant
of
the
disease
have
been
found
in
the
U.S.
This
new
variant
is
called
H3N2v.
The
H3N2
appears
to
be
transmissible
among
humans.
Flu
vaccines
are
based
on
predicting
which
mutants
of
H1N1,
H3N2,
H1N2,
and
influenza
B
will
proliferate
in
the
next
season.
Separate
vaccines
are
developed
for
the
northern
and
southern
hemispheres
in
preparation
for
their
annual
epidemics.
In
the
tropics,
influenza
shows
no
clear
seasonality.
In
the
past
ten
years,
H3N2
has
tended
to
dominate
in
prevalence
over
H1N1,
H1N2,
and
influenza
B.
Measured
resistance
to
the
standard
antiviral
drugs
amantadine
and
rimantadine
in
H3N2
has
increased
from
1%
in
1994
to
12%
in
2003
to
91%
in
2005.
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