Tamiflu Reduces The Number Of Cases Of Pneumonia In 'Swine Flu' Patients

Tamiflu Reduces The Number Of Cases Of Pneumonia In 'Swine Flu' Patients.
When captivated tersely after the onset of symptoms, the antiviral cure-all Tamiflu seems to have protected otherwise healthy swine flu patients from contracting pneumonia during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Chinese researchers say. Tamiflu may also have shortened the epoch that patients were contagious and reduced the duration of their fevers, the dig into team said.

However, reporting in the Sept 29 result of 'bmj dot com', the study authors stressed that their findings should be interpreted with caution given that the conclusions are based on an after-the-fact study and on a pool of patients not uniformly given chest X-rays at the time of illness. The chew over team, led by Dr Weizhong Yang and Dr Hongjie Yu from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, note that in 2009 the fast-spreading influenza A (H1N1) virus killed more than 18000 forebears in over 200 countries.

Prior analysis has suggested that patients who make use of antiviral medications within two days of experiencing seasonal flu symptoms may lay open a less severe and shorter-lasting illness and may also reduce their risk for complications. To gauge to what degree this might be honestly for healthy patients with a mild form of H1N1, the research team reviewed the medical records of nearly 1300 Chinese patients diagnosed with the infection in 2009.

The normal age of the patients was 20. More than three-quarters were given Tamiflu within a median of three days following the start of symptoms, and 920 of the patients underwent backup chest X-rays. Just 12 percent of those X-rayed had signs of pneumonia, the researchers observed. None of them needed revelation for intensive care, and none required mechanical ventilation.

Even after accounting for age, gender, influenza vaccine and antibiotic therapy history, the authors concluded that Tamiflu healing appeared to offer significant protection against pneumonia. This protective effect was superficial in all patients who took Tamiflu, even those who took it more than 48 hours after symptom onset, but those who took the medication within 48 hours master shorter fevers and were contagious for a shorter time badane. The Chinese line-up nonetheless called for more follow-up research to investigate the potential benefits of Tamiflu for swine flu.