Tamiflu and its competitor Relanza reduce less than one day of suffering from the symptoms for patients with the flu. For the issue, if it is given only to people who have already developed symptoms, it is better to try to locate the patients before they develop symptoms, then the effectiveness of the drugs is much higher, and the most useful - to vaccinate
A study published online and to be published in the September issue of the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases concluded that the use of antiviral drugs to treat people presenting with flu symptoms is unlikely to be the best treatment during a seasonal outbreak. Expanding the vaccination policy could be more effective and cheaper. The review was written by Dr. Jane Burch and Prof. Leslie Stewart, from the Center for Skiing and Distribution at the University of York in the United Kingdom and their colleagues.
Although the review is based on data from seasonal flu outbreaks, the researchers say that the findings could also be relevant to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic for those at risk of flu complications (people suffering from heart and lung disease, diabetes or other medical problems).
They performed a meta-study (a review of many studies and finding commonalities between them and consolidating their data into one large database) of the effectiveness of antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza. The study evaluated both healthy adults (those with no known medical problems and those at risk of complications). In healthy people, Tamiflu shortened the median time to symptom resolution by half a day (0.55 days) and Relanza by 0.57 days. As for the risk group, the reduction in the duration of symptoms It was 0.74 days for those using Tamiflu and 0.98 for those using Relenza. This reduction in symptoms is small relative to the total duration of symptoms for most patients. The researchers did not have enough information about the severity of complications.
Other approaches can be as effective in the same information, and in terms of cost, than treating people who already have flu symptoms. Among other things, the researchers recommend considering vaccination, treating those who have been in the company of patients as soon as possible before they develop symptoms, turning antiviral medications into over-the-counter medications, as well as providing family doctors with tools so that they can diagnose the flu as quickly as possible even before symptoms appear, and allow them to provide a prescription for antiviral medications as soon as possible . There are advantages and disadvantages to each strategy. The researchers say - any strategy that increases the availability of drugs to the general public may cause incorrect use, and increase the chance of the development of a strain of viruses that will develop resistance to them.
For research on the website of the journal Lentz
On the same subject: The doctors and nurses are afraid of swine flu
9 תגובות
For anti-propaganda:
So this is where you are wrong.
Meanwhile the mortality did not pass normal mortality from influenza.
All publications about people who got sick and died from the flu.
There are people in the risk group who, unfortunately, have equal chances of dying due to common flu or swine flu.
Only when patients die from the common flu, it doesn't appear in the press...and certainly doesn't grab a headline.
Check the data from the Ministry of Health in Israel and around the world regarding the common flu.
And the results of the vaccination there we know...
I'm not at all sure that it all stems from the pharmaceutical companies' desire to make a little more money.
It doesn't look like just the flu to me
Hundreds of people don't die in a normal winter and certainly no people die already in the summer period before the winter
Enough with this expensive populism.
Meanwhile, it is the media that creates the panic around the "swine" flu.
At least I have yet to come across data that indicates that the mortality or spread of this flu is faster or more severe than normal flu.
Of course, the scientific world will examine with concern any new virus in humans, and avoid it in the first place. But there is a huge difference between surveillance, and actions following it.
and jumping to conclusions, and wasting public money.
At the moment, it is not at all clear if the vaccine will work, and if so, until when, and how the virus will behave to mass vaccination workers.
Enough with the propaganda, hypochondriac you said?!
I travel a lot on buses and am very afraid of getting infected this winter.
Why are there no vaccinations like every year?
Concludes with the hypochondriac.
Why is there no competition between the health funds for the benefit of the consumers in the important things - that they bring us vaccines and quickly!
The whole world is in a system frenzy about the swine flu and only we here are buying only a few vaccines that will arrive in just a few months.... Blessed is the believer!
It is not clear to me why the health insurance funds do not buy vaccines for all of us and offer them for a nominal fee to all of us in preparation for the expected terrible winter?
Surely the Ministry of Finance will now justify not buying the vaccines by saying that it is not worth paying hundreds of millions to the pharmaceutical companies for half a day's reduction of symptoms?
which country ? When the flu is getting worse in the world here they haven't even had time to purchase options to buy vaccine stocks.... So to vaccinate in advance in an initiated and planned manner instead of after infection - this is a charming proposal that will not work in the State of Israel "the trailblazer"