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Tamiflu and Its Efficacy in Preventing Bird Flu
Tamiflu works by blocking the action of an enzyme called neuraminidase that helps cells infected with the influenza virus spread the infection to healthy cells...

Date : July 05, 2006

Today, world over health experts and general people are too concerned about the health risks posed by the avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu or avian flu. Health professionals and scientists are working day and night to develop best methods and drugs to control the spread of avian flu.

Bird flu is generally caused by the influenza A viruses, which are chiefly present in birds and can infect humans. The risk of infection is generally low in humans but there are reports of confirmed cases of human infection since 1997.

In most cases, avian influenza virus infects humans when people make direct contact with infected poultry, their feces or contaminated surfaces. It gets transmitted to the domesticated birds when they are allowed to take infected water and feed.

The various symptoms of avian influenza in humans are fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases, and other severe and life-threatening complications. The fatality of the infection will depend mostly on the state of the immune system of an infected person, and the type of virus subtype and the strain.

In fact, there is no specific anti-avian influenza vaccine for humans, but doctors mostly prescribed oseltamivir phosphate, with the brand name Tamiflu to treat avian influenza. It belongs to a group of medicines called Neuraminidase inhibitors and should be taken within 2 days of the onset of the flu symptoms, it restricts the virus to enter and spread inside the body.

Tamiflu works by blocking the action of an enzyme called neuraminidase that helps cells infected with the influenza virus spread the infection to healthy cells. Tamiflu also reduces the severity of symptoms and the duration of an influenza virus infection.

Clinical trials about the effectiveness of Tamiflu as a preventive measure against bird flu found that in healthy adults, there was a significantly lower incidence of influenza among those who took the drug, with 1.3% of eventually developing healthy adults who took Tamiflu the flu, while 4.8% of those who received a placebo became ill with influenza. So, treatment with Tamiflu may be considered in high-risk populations or after an incompletely effective flu vaccination.

As with any drug, certain precautions are necessary when taking Tamiflu. Its safety and effectiveness have not been determined in people with chronic heart or lung disease, kidney failure, or people with high-risk underlying medical conditions. The most common reported side effects of Tamiflu are nausea and vomiting.

There are chances that the virus H5N1 may become resistant to Tamiflu or some other anti-viral medicine. Therefore, additional studies and more research work are needed to determine the effectiveness of these medicines to safeguard the public health.

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