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Officials have recently become alarmed because one of the two most commonly used anti-virals known by the trade name Tamiflu, has shown little efficacy against this year’s prevailing flu strains.
In an apparently increasing number of cases, though, influenza is accompanied by bacterial infections; officials noted a marked increase in such secondary infections during the 2006-07 flu season and have watched numbers rise since. Bacterial infections, if caught in time and properly diagnosed, can often be treated with antibiotics.
But symptoms of bacterial infection are hard for the layperson to distinguish from those of the flu, and by the time they are recognized, it’s often too late for antibiotics. Moreover, many such infections are caused by bacteria such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) that have become resistant to most frontline antibiotics. Of the 17 pediatric flu deaths this season, 10 have involved Staphylococcus aureus infection, with four of those 10 involving MRSA. | 
