People everywhere already know that this year's flu vaccine is only 23% effective against the Type A H3N2 flu strain, contrary to the usual 50% to 60% effectiveness recorded for flu vaccines of past years, but health authorities suggest the use of antiviral drugs as an alternative to boost the body's defenses against flu epidemics where vaccines would not do much.
The ineffectiveness of this year's flu vaccine indicate that a lot of people might get sick from influenza this year, and a significant number of infants and the elderly might die from flu-related illnesses unless of course an aggressive use of antiviral drugs are administered. Infants and adults aged 65 years and above are more at risk with this strain of flu virus, and even where the vaccine had been as effective as usual, it works less in infants and elderly people. So the abundant use of recommended antivirals remains the only alternative to preventing hospitalizations and flu deaths.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised medical practitioners to administer strong antiviral drugs to any patient showing flu symptoms regardless of whether a lab test has confirmed his flu status or not, and anyone else who the doctors feel need antiviral drugs should be given some to boost their immunity against flu strains where vaccines have not been so effective.
Health workers state that it is not easy to identify a new patient with flu without conducting the primary tests which can take a day to get done.
But Dr. David Busch, chief of the infectious diseases division in the Department of Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center reacted to this: "But the person who all of a sudden got severe aches and high fever and some respiratory complaints all at once — everything sounds like the flu? That's the person we encourage to treat right away."
Several cases of flu continue to be reported in most parts of the US and several hospitalizations and deaths have occurred, and according to Dr. Roger Baxter, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, "It's still on a very steep rise right now," which calls for urgent alternatives like the administration of strong antiviral drugs to serve as alternatives.
Drug manufacturers had a problem manufacturing an affective flu vaccine that matches this year's strain because the H3N2 strain mutated several times after the vaccines had been made six months earlier. In a well-matched year, the vaccine can be effective in 90% of healthy adults that receive it, but it provides about 60% of protection for the aged.
"Certainly if someone is hospitalized and they have influenza, you give them antivirals," said Dr. Henry Chambers of the Division of Infectious Diseases at San Francisco General Hospital. "Efficacy is going to be better if someone comes in early. But for a critically ill patient, you wouldn't withhold therapy if it's 49 hours instead of 48."
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