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Tamiflu - The best option to treat Bird Flu
As of yesterday, a fourth person had died in Egypt after being infected with avian influenza, the state news agency, Mena, has said. The victim, an 18-year-old woman from north of Cairo, was admitted to hospital on Monday and found to be suffering from the H5N1 virus...

Distribution Source : Finegenerics
Date : Thursday, April 20, 2006

There have so far been 12 reported cases of human bird flu in Egypt. Around the world, more than 100 people have died from the H5N1 strain of the disease since.

For most people all over the world two words have become synonymous with death and fear - Bird Flu. A disease which is caused by the H5N1 strain of the influenza virus. Is bird flu going to transform itself into a massive killer of humans? Or is it simply going to fade away? One important fact bears out . Whenever it has struck the fatalities are 50% of the total infected group of humans

If you listen to many of our health experts, you would already be cordoning off your house. Last month, Tennessee virologist Dr. Robert Webster, known for his research efforts as - the flu hunter, insisted that "society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die."

This hysterical prophecy from a serious scientist compounded previous statements made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who said bird flu is a time bomb waiting to go of and Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who agrees with most experts that regarding a serious avian flu pandemic, “it's not a question of if, it's a question of when”. Even the cautious secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, recently let slip the alarmist notion that is was time to talk about closing schools and stockpiling tuna fish and powdered milk.

But the science on the H5N1 bird flu virus may not support these conclusions. Two important studies published just last month in top science journals show that this bird flu virus is still multiple mutations away from being able to pass easily among humans. This bird flu appears to be better absorbed by the deep pockets of bird lungs, whereas human flu is absorbed by the cells of our upper airways

In fact here are a few facts that you should know

• So far, very few avian flu viruses have "crossed the species barrier" and infected humans.
  
  
• And those that have, the H5N1 strain has caused the largest number of severe cases detected.
  
  
• In the current outbreaks in Asia and Europe, around half of those infected have died ... and most reported cases have been children and young adults.
  
  
• So far, the H5N1 virus has hardly spread from person to person ...
  
  
• But all flu viruses can "mutate".
  
  
• Scientists are worried that one day it might be able to pass quite easily from one person to another.

How do we deal with this kind of pandemic? Firstly try to prevent it. The best way to do that is cordon off the affected areas. These include China and other part of South.

East Asia. But this is not enough there is increasing evidence, experts say, that a thriving international trade in smuggled poultry products - including birds, chicks, eggs, meat, feathers and other products - is making a substantial contribution to the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Poultry smuggling turned out to be a huge and previously largely overlooked business, perhaps also has killed or led to the slaughter of more than 200 million chickens, ducks, turkeys and other domestic fowl in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Species migrating from Asia across the Bering Strait -- considered the most likely carriers of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus -- include eiders, pintails, geese, long-tailed ducks, dunlins, sandpipers and plovers. There's also concern about gulls, terns and falcons.

Therefore containment and quarantine of birds may not be a practical way of handling this outbreak. There are treatment options but they are limited to a few drugs. Amantadine and Rimantadine, two very powerful anti-viral drugs are of no use in treating the virus. Relenza, an inhaled anti-viral medication from Glaxo Smith Kline Beecham that contains Zanamivir is very effective, but highly inconvenient to patients. This makes Tamiflu, the blockbuster drug from Roche AG, which contains Oseltamivir phosphate the best bet to treat bird flu. Being an oral drug in the tablet it can conveniently be taken by most patients. It is most effective, when taken as early as possible during the illness.

Most governments all over the world have stocked up with huge quantities of Tamiflu. They want to ensure that if the virus mutates and goes for human to human transmission, they are not left with vast number of people dying. The Spanish Flu of 1914-1918 killed 25 million people. Avian Influenza can kill millions more. With Tamiflu we can be assured of large amount of protection, if not the complete protection that a vaccine can give.

This news release is entirely a personal opinion. It should not be misconstrued as a medical advice.

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