Archive for July, 2010
Many medicines are used to treat symptoms of influenza. Tamiflu medication proves to be the most effective influenza treatment available in the present times. Even the World Health Organisation has attested to its effectiveness and approved it for use in case of bird flu pandemic in any country of the world.
About Tamiflu – Its manufacturer
Tamiflu is a prescription drug that doctors prescribe for treatment and prevention of flu infections among adults. It is also useful for children whose age is one year or above. Tamiflu is not a substitute for any flu vaccine, so people should not try to ignore general flu vaccinations.
Roche pharmaceuticals manufacture Tamiflu, which has been accepted as a potent weapon to fight against any type of flu infections worldwide.
Comes in the strength of
Tamiflu comes in a tablet form for adults. It is also available in fruit flavoured liquid form for children who are one year old or above. Those adults who find it difficult to swallow tablets can take liquid form.
Adults can take Tamiflu tablets in the strength of 75mg and for children, dosage of 12mg/ml flavoured oral suspension is ideal.
You can take Tamiflu medication with or without food. However, if you take this influenza medication with light food, it rules out any possibility of upsetting your stomach.
What is influenza virus?
The influenza virus is a transmittable virus, which spreads from one person to another through tiny droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets are released in the air by these actions.
You may even get influenza virus when you touch the nose or mouth of an infected person. This means that if you have flu infection, you can easily pass on the flu to someone else before that person knows it.
Influenza virus infection can last up to one week. But it causes serious illness, particularly among people who are above 50 years of age. It can also aggravate problems of people who suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma.
How to treat influenza virus?
You can treat your influenza virus infection with Tamiflu medication, which is considered as one of the best anti-viral medicine.
If you experience symptoms of influenza virus, you should take treatment within 48 hours of first observable signs. Tamiflu medication helps in both treatment and prevention of influenza virus infection.
When you take Tamiflu medication within two days of experiencing first symptoms of influenza virus, oseltamivir phosphate, which is the main ingredient in this drug, works to stop the flu virus from spreading inside the body.
You can also take Tamiflu as a prevention medicine when you have been exposed to an infected person. This anti-viral drug can help you by preventing the influenza virus from making you sick.
Side effects of Tamiflu
Tamiflu is a prescription drug. So it is obvious for some side effects to become visible among users. Some users report rare and serious side effects of this medication, but immediate medical attention help reduce these reactions.
The most common side effects of Tamiflu medication include nausea and vomiting. These are generally mild and are easily treatable through proper medical consultation.
You should always take precautionary steps whenever you take Tamiflu medication. You should avoid taking Tamiflu if your doctor says that you are allergic to oseltamivir phosphate or any other ingredients of this anti-viral drug.
Pregnant women or nursing mothers should also avoid intake of Tamiflu to tackle their influenza virus infections. Its intake can have some side effects on the unborn child or nursing infant. These women should be always open about talking with their doctors regarding intake of this medicine. Patients who suffer from medical conditions such as kidney problems should also avoid this drug. They can seek advice of their doctors instead of taking this drug at their own risk.
If you are already taking other medication for influenza virus treatment, then you should first ask your doctor before starting Tamiflu medication. It can check possibility of any serious reactions due to ingredients of Tamiflu.
Bird flu is a disease caused by a specific type of avian (bird) influenza virus, the so-called H5N1 virus. This virus was first discovered in birds in China in 1997, and since then has infected 125 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia, killing 64 of them. It is spread by infected migratory birds (including wild ducks and geese) to domestic poultry (primarily chickens, ducks, and turkeys), and then to humans.
Some infected people have developed abnormal clotting profiles resulting in excessive bleeding—which was a frequent clinical symptom in the deadly so-called Spanish influenza of 1918-19, which killed more than 100 million people worldwide. Indeed, bird flu shares a number of disturbing characteristics with the 1918-19 influenza virus. These two viruses have, in fact, recently been shown to be similar genetically. And in a recent laboratory experiment with mice, the 1918-19 virus was found to produce 39,000 times more viruses four days after infection than the regular seasonal human flu strain. The 1918-19 virus killed 100 percent of the mice that were infected with it, compared to none of the mice infected with the regular flu strain. With a current “case fatality rate,” or death rate of approximately 50 percent in humans, bird flu is obviously also a very deadly disease.
There are only a few reports in the medical literature describing the clinical features of bird flu in humans. The clinical spectrum of H5N1 infection ranges from asymptomatic infection—where the person doesn’t even know he or she is infected—to fatal pneumonia and multiple organ failure. Some infected individuals develop liver or kidney dysfunction, and there were two children who died from the virus that came to medical attention because of diarrhea and seizures related to encephalitis (infection of the brain). However, the most common presentation is one of fever, cough, and trouble breathing. Approximately 70 percent of patients also have diarrhea, and a few patients have had only gastrointestinal symptoms (such as stomach ache, vomiting, and diarrhea) and no breathing problems.
Deaths have generally been in normally healthy people. The first report in the medical literature of deaths from bird flu was on 12 patients living in Hong Kong. Their median age was nine years, with a range of one to 60 years. All presented with fever, and eight had symptoms or signs of upper-respiratory infections (five had clinical and X-ray evidence of pneumonia when first diagnosed). Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, including stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, were present in eight patients. There were a total of five deaths (one died with Reye’s syndrome, which is associated with taking aspirin in children).
In a study of 10 patients in Vietnam with laboratory-confirmed avian influenza (H5N1), the mean age of the patients was 13.7 years. For eight of the patients, there was a clear history of either direct handling of poultry (chickens or ducks) or exposure to sick poultry in the week before the onset of illness. All presented in January 2004 with cough, shortness of breath, and fever, and seven had diarrhea; none had myalgia (muscle aches)—which is often found in the regular seasonal flu. Notably, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) was administered to five patients, four of whom died (treatment was probably started too late for the medication to be effective—it must be given within 48 hours after onset of symptoms to be effective). In total, eight of the patients died, for an 80 percent case fatality rate or death rate.
As is apparent from the descriptions above, the presenting symptoms of individuals with bird flu are very similar to the symptoms of the normal seasonal flu. Infections caused by either the bird-flu virus (H5N1) or the seasonal influenza virus can be completely asymptomatic—that is, cause no symptoms at all. Fever, cough, malaise (feeling ill), and gastrointestinal symptoms are common to both infections. Excessive bleeding occurs only with bird flu, but currently this symptom doesn’t appear to be common. Difficulty breathing is more common with severe cases of bird flu, not seasonal flu. Runny nose and sneezing are found only with colds (or allergies).
The cough in either type of infection is what is referred to in medicine as “nonproductive”—meaning there is no sputum brought up when coughing, or if any sputum is brought up, it is white in color. This type of cough is characteristic of upper respiratory viral infections. As either type of infection progresses or worsens, tissues may be damaged, disrupting the normal structure and function of the infected cells. This in turn may allow bacteria to grow and also cause damage. When this happens following a viral infection, it is referred to as a “secondary” bacterial infection. When this occurs, the color of the sputum characteristically turns yellow or green. If this happens, antibiotics are indicated to treat the bacterial infection. (Antibiotics are not indicated in the treatment of viral infections, because they don’t work.)
It is safe to assume that during a bird-flu pandemic, most individuals who become infected with the bird-flu virus will either be asymptomatic—having no symptoms—or their illness will not be severe enough to require hospitalization. The small percentage who do become seriously ill will have to be hospitalized, and treated with either of the two antiviral agents available, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza). A smaller subset of that group will develop life-threatening complications such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which requires treatment with a mechanical ventilator, a respirator.
Some individuals may develop other serious complications such as liver failure, kidney failure, neurological problems—such as seizures, paralysis, psychiatric problems such as delirium or psychosis, or bleeding problems. However, it is reasonable to predict that most people infected with the virus will not die and will not have significant residual symptoms, although a small percentage will.
Bradford Frank, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
The Frank Group
P.O. Box 138
Lakewood, NY 14750
[http://www.AvoidBirdFlu.com]
Bappa Majumdar reported:
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Veterinary staff in eastern India are capturing chickens in night-time raids on the backyards of homes to surprise villagers unwilling to part with their poultry as an outbreak of bird flu spread.
Bird flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal’s 19 districts, with samples of dead chickens testing positive in two new districts, officials said on Monday.
“It is very difficult to contain the virus among backyard poultry as villagers hide their chickens and even smuggle it to homes of distant relatives,” said Anisur Rahaman, the state’s animal resources minister.
Read the full report here.
Image source here.
Avian bird flu, a viral disease, also termed as bird flu, avian influenza, type A flu or genus. This flu is a kind of influenza hosted by birds but can affect other animals and particularly humans also. The virus in general is the influenza virus ‘A’ but is a bit different every time the flu breaks out, because of the evolutionary changes it keeps undergoing. New viruses keep getting formed because of genetic mutation and are named using a H number and an N number, which denote different pathogenic profiles. Some of those ones which for sure affect human populace and did so in the past are, H1N1 (Spanish flu, 1918-19) H2N2 (Asian flu, 1957-58), H3N2 (Hong Kong flu, 1968-69), etc. Some of those identified are extinct now because of the constant mutations taking place in the structure of the virus which self destructs its capabilities to infect humans anymore. Also new viruses have come up and currently the major pandemic (epidemic over a wide geographical area) threat is from H5N1 virus.
It was first discovered in Italy in 1878 and was even called fowl plague because of the enormity of its effect in chicken livestock. It was however only in 1955 when avian flu was confirmed to be caused by influenza A viruses. Wild fowl is the natural carrier of the virus, though it is not affected by the virus and is only a transmitter to birds, pigs, horses, etc. The bodies (intestines to be more specific) of gulls, waterfowls and shorebirds are said to be “natural reservoirs” of the disease. Their bodies have long adapted to the problem and have developed internal antibodies to combat the virus. The adaptation, however, does not extend to other species. Hence domestic birds are the most affected and other animals and humans are only marginally affected, in numbers. The bird flu virus causes two forms of influenzas, namely, a low pathogenic form which shows only nominal symptoms and a high pathogenic form which affects internal organs and might prove 100% fatal in 48 hours.
The disease is contagious and spreads through air and in manure. The transmission occurs from air, contaminated water, equipments especially those used in animal farms, clothing, etc. At high temperatures the virus gets destroyed, like in prolonged summers, cooking, steaming, fires, etc. but survives for long periods in cold weather. The bird flu virus starts showing its effects in 3 to 5 days, and can be fatal if highly pathogenic. Hundreds and millions of birds get killed every year, since the most commonly practiced way of eliminating the virus is to slaughter the infected animals.
It has a long history of affecting human population in epidemic form. Those subtypes which infect humans are called human influenza virus. The only known ones are H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2, with H5N1 having a potential threat. The symptoms shown in humans are same as those from other influenza, namely, fever, cough, muscle fatigue, conjunctivitis and sometimes breathing problems and fatal pneumonia. Detection of the avian bird flu virus in the human body can be done using general influenza virus tests, but this might be unreliable. The most reliable test till date is microneutralization but is a complicated test and can be performed only in highly professional laboratories. Normal antiviral drugs work against the human influenza virus but other specific drugs for specific new viruses are being developed.
As far as humans are concerned, the bird flu virus has substantial risk of an influenza epidemic in near future. A primary concern is the rapid spreading of the virus (infecting domesticated birds) between continents with migrating birds. Short term strategies are to kill the animals, vaccinating poultry, stop human travelling to and from the affected region, whereas a long term solution would be vaccination and hygienic lifestyles.