Tamiflu – The most remarkable flu treatment available today

Perhaps this year more than ever, the prevention and treatment of flu is at the front of people’s minds. Swine flu (that is to say, influenza caused by what is officially known as the ‘new H1N1 strain of the flu virus’) burst onto the scene in April 2009 where it emerged out of Mexico as a new, highly contagious strain of flu. It is thought to have developed as a mutation of four known strains of the influenza A virus subtype Bird Flu, the (H5N1) strain – one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds and two endemics in pigs.

By June 2009, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the spread of the disease had already reached pandemic status (i.e. a global epidemic). Clinics worldwide have been overwhelmed with new cases, to such an extent that the WHO has now stopped requiring countries to report all cases, although monitoring of unusually large outbreaks continues.

Fortunately, swine flu generally results in a fairly mild illness that lasts just a few days before the patient fully recovers. Most of the hospitalizations and deaths that have occurred have been in people who already had underlying conditions such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or weakened immune systems.

But that’s not to say that swine flu or indeed regular seasonal flu should be taken lightly. Every year hundreds of thousands of people worldwide die from complications arising from regular seasonal influenza infections.

And whether it’s swine flu or regular seasonal flu that you are worried about, Tamiflu (also known as Oseltamivir) is today recognised as a world leader when it comes to flu treatment and preventative medication. In fact, Tamiflu has proven to be so successful that it now ranks as the number one doctor prescribed flu medication in the United States.

So just what is “the Flu”? Unfortunately the term flu is often misused to describe a range of mild respiratory bugs, but true influenza is a whole different ball game. It is caused the highly infectious RNA viruses from the orthomyxoviridae family. There are 3 main types of flu virus - A, B and C. Types A and B produce essentially identical illnesses, but influenza C infection produces a much milder illness. As we mentioned in passing above, swine flu is a subset of the influenza A virus.

As the disease only has a short incubation period and is highly contagious, flu symptoms often appear very suddenly. The symptoms themselves usually only last from 3-7 days but it can take up to a further three weeks before the patient finally feels really well again as flu can leave a lingering tiredness.

As the immune system gears up to fight off the flu virus, symptoms can be felt all over the body although surprisingly the infection itself is actually confined to just the respiratory tract i.e. the nose, throat and airways. Flu is certainly very different from the common cold even though people with heavy colds often, mistakenly, say that they have flu.

Most people with flu complain of chills and a high fever, muscle aches and pains, feeling very tired, headaches, a runny nose, sore throat, chest discomfort and a dry cough (productive coughs where mucus is coughed up are common with colds not flu). In children, flu can also trigger abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Generally these gastric type symptoms are rare in adults.

One of the main problems with flu is that it is a highly contagious disease that spreads easily by way of droplet infection. In fact, you become infectious a day before you develop any symptoms which means that you can unwittingly spread the disease before you are even aware that you have flu. People remain infectious for a further 5 days.

When it enters your body, the flu virus effectively hijacks cells in your respiratory tract. Each infected cell then produces thousands of microscopic viral particles, millions of which are sprayed out into the air every time you sneeze or cough. The sprayed out virus particles then linger in the air waiting to be breathed in by another unsuspecting victim. It is also possible to become infected by touching your nose or mouth after you have touched something that has been infected with the virus. Given such an effective transmitting infection, it’s easy to see how epidemics and even pandemics can occur.

Fortunately Tamiflu not only works to treat the symptoms of flu but can also be used as a preventative measure. And when it hit the market in 1999, it became the first oral antiviral medication to do both of these things.

Tamiflu belongs to a class of drugs known as neurominidase inhibitors. This means that it blocks the action of viral neuraminidase proteins - the enzymes that exist on the surfaces of influenza viruses that enable viral particles to be released from infected host cells. By blocking the action of viral neurominidase proteins, Tamiflu stops infected cells from releasing new viral particles. So if you already have flu, Tamiflu can help to stop the virus from spreading in your body or if you have been exposed to someone who already has flu, it can help stop the flu virus from making you sick.

But timing is the key. For Tamiflu to be effective, it has to be taken within the first 48 hours from when you or someone in your family first begins to show signs of developing flu. However, if taken in time and for the correct length of time (one dose twice a day for 5 days to treat symptoms or one dose once a day for 10 days as a preventative measure) Tamiflu can be really effective. If you already have flu, it can really help you to get better fast - in fact studies have shown that adults who take Tamiflu feel better around 30% faster than those who don’t! What’s more Tamiflu is approved for use in children from the age of one upwards so just about everyone can benefit from taking it.

So remember, whether you are particularly worried this year by swine flu or whether you just want to be able fight off regular seasonal flu, make Tamiflu your first line of defense.