O17 Detection of influenza A virus resistance to oseltamivir by a single nucleotide polymorphism-based assay

Influenza A virus, A/Brisbane/59/2007 has been recognized as being progressively URIC resistant to the antiviral drug Oseltamivir due to the H275Y mutation in the neuraminidase gene. A single nucleotide polymorphism assay was designed to detect this mutation in RNA extracted from patient specimens. The assay was based on hybridization of 2 probes in a real-time reverse-transcriptase PCR reaction. This assay was evaluated for the detection of this mutation by sequence analysis of the relevant portion of the neuramindase gene. The assay proved effective in providing a rapid detection of the H275Y mutation which was readily applied in selection of the appropriate treatment of cases in institutional outbreaks of influenza.