Tamiflu Still Number One Say WHO

a change of policy would not be beneficial.

The World Health Organisation wants everybody to know that they are standing by the influenza medication Tamiflu and have not changed their recommendations because of the few isolated cases of Tamiflu resistance experienced in the UK, the United States and other countries. The WHO made it clear that Tamiflu was still the most effective defence against the H1N1 swine flu virus and that a change of policy would not be beneficial.

In the UK and the US a number of cases which didn’t respond to Tamiflu have caused concern but this does not necessarily mean that the Tamiflu was not working because it could have been that the individual patients had compromised immune systems due to other illnesses. In fact four Americans who didn’t respond to Tamiflu were actually being treated for cancer and a number of other individuals in the UK were also being treated in hospital for other conditions which could have a bearing on why the Tamiflu didn’t work.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda who heads the influenza section at the World Health Organisation said that they were looking into these individual cases and therefore could not to jump to conclusions at present. There has been plenty of speculation about possible mutations of the H1N1 swine influenza virus but most of it is based on media hype as opposed to logical science.
It is likely that the virus will continue to mutate but just because it changes slightly does not mean that Tamiflu will automatically be rendered ineffective.

Tamiflu even works against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus which kills about 50 percent of those who get it making it the most deadly influenza virus known to man. On the other hand the swine influenza virus while serious does not kill nearly as many people as some people like to speculate. Nevertheless what makes the swine influenza virus dangerous is that certain sections of the population for example obese individuals are more likely to become seriously ill or even die from it.