Scientists: Anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza treat Swine Flu
Laboratory testing in the United States showed the new virus was treatable by the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.
There is no vaccine against this strain of swine flu, and developing one could take six months or more. Tamiflu and Relenza are the only bulwarks against the illness, scientists say, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Medical experts say people should not take Tamiflu or Relenza unless they have been exposed to someone with the flu or have been diagnosed with it. Nausea is a common side effect of Tamiflu, which is a pill. Relenza is inhaled and can cause respiratory problems in some patients, said Dan Hussar, a pharmacy professor at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
Singapore Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan at a Press Conference on the Swine Flu (April 29) reiterated that Tamiflu and Relenza is a treatment for influenza and not a vaccine. Therefore, those who are not suffering from the flu should not take Tamiflu as it might in fact cause the drugs to be ineffective in the event of influenza (see video).
In the United States, the first shipments of Tamiflu and Relenza from a federal stockpile arrived Wednesday in large cities like New York. The U.S. government was shipping to states enough medication to treat 11 million people as a precaution. All states should get their share by May 3, Associated Press reports.
The disease is not spread by eating pork and U.S. officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain “swine flu.” President Barack Obama called the bug the “H1N1 virus,” and other administration officials followed his lead.
“The disease is not a food-borne illness,” Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
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