Elderly people are at particular risk from regular flu

The National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence that evaluates the benefits and value for money of medications in the United Kingdom has given the thumbs up to the Tamiflu influenza medication made by the pharmaceutical giant Roche. The National Health Service of the UK relies on positive recommendations from NICE before giving the green light to free prescriptions of any new drug.

The approval from NICE came with a couple of recommendations that the medication should only be given out in certain circumstances. They said that the Tamiflu drug would be particular effective if given to people who were at high risk from the regular flu virus such as old people in nursing homes. They explained that if individuals who were at high risk had been exposed to other individuals with influenza it would be a good idea to give them Tamiflu immediately before they started to show symptoms.

Elderly people are at particular risk from regular flu and it sometimes causes death and therefore NICE feels that preventative use of Tamiflu could be effective in saving lives. As well as the Tamiflu influenza drug the other well known influenza medication Relenza which is made by GlaxoSmithKline also got a positive recommendation from NICE for the same application.

It is important to remember however that NICE’s guidance did not evaluate whether the Tamiflu drug should be used as prevention for a full bird flu pandemic and was more concerned with the regular flu virus. Nevertheless the World Health Organisation has been saying for a number of years that the Tamiflu flu medication provides the best drug defence against succumbing to the H5N1 bird flu virus pandemic.

NICE defined people who are at risk as being 65+, those who suffered from asthma and other respiratory illnesses, those with cardio disease, renal disease, liver disease neurological disease, diabetes and immunosuppression problems.