Early Tamiflu treatment helps kids with influenza
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Expeditious treatment with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, can markedly reduce the duration of illness, symptom severity, and complications in children with influenza, according to study findings presented earlier this month at the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Disease meeting in Bangkok.
This is “the first time that a dramatic reduction in influenza severity duration, complications and antibiotic use” has been shown when Tamiflu was started within 24 hours of illness onset, study researcher Dr. Keith Reisinger, from Primary Physicians Research in Pittsburgh, told Reuters Health.
The message for doctors is that “when influenza has been diagnosed in children, Tamiflu should be administered as soon as possible—ideally within 24 hours,” he emphasized.
In a prior study involving 452 children with influenza, the use of Tamiflu within 48 hours of disease onset limited influenza symptoms. In the current analysis, the researchers re-examined the data, dividing the patients into two groups based on whether the drug was given in under 24 hours of disease onset or between 24 and 48 hours.
In the earlier study, Tamiflu use within 48 hours of disease onset cut influenza severity by 29 percent and illness duration by 26 percent relative to placebo use. The new findings indicate that use of the drug within 24 hours can reduce severity by 52.4 percent and duration by 34.5 percent.
Tamiflu use within 24 hours of onset was also associated with a 55.5 percent reduction in acute ear infection and with a 24 percent drop in antibiotic use, Reisinger said.
There was also evidence that Tamiflu was useful in preventing influenza. The rate of influenza was reduced by 80 percent when children in families having a member with influenza received preventative treatment with Tamiflu, Reisinger noted.
The findings confirm previous reports that Tamiflu is effective in treating influenza children and expand on them by showing the drug works best when used within 24 hours of symptom onset, the authors conclude.
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