Double Dose Testing Of Tamiflu To Start
Written by Stuart Stevens | Friday, 30 March 2007 | There is 1 comment
The new trial will use hundreds of people...
When bird flu strikes in humans it is essential that Tamiflu is administered quickly. Ideally you should be given Tamiflu within the first 48 hours of the virus entering your body and due to the dangers of the H5N1 bird flu virus your chances of survival are not 100 percent. To date there have been over 200 cases of human bird flu in the world and it has been seen by medical authorities that when Tamiflu is administered the chances of survival are much greater. However the survival rates are still at around the 50 percent mark and this is because very often the Tamiflu is not administered in time.
Some doctors in America and in Asia have decided to experiment with the Tamiflu drug and see if by giving larger doses of the medication the survival rates might increase. A trial has been set up to administer Tamiflu in patients who have caught the bird flu or who have a severe form of the seasonal human flu to see if a larger dose of Tamiflu could save more lives.
At present if you contract the H5N1 bird flu virus you are advised to take one tablet of Tamiflu twice a day over a five day period but the researchers have seen that with animals when they are given Tamiflu to cure the H5N1 virus a larger dose work wonders. This does not mean that the same applies to humans and at present the research is only at the testing stage and you should not take more Tamiflu then recommended.
The new trial will use hundreds of people suffering from a severe form of normal human flu as well as any human cases of the H5N1 virus. The researchers feel that it is important to know whether a double Tamiflu dose is safe and will not cause further health complications.
