Flu Drugs Do Not Work

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A vaccine is the only supposed antidote to a flu virus, and there isn’t one yet for the swine flu virus, and there probably won’t be one for a few months yet. Despite this, drug companies – and especially those that can offer an antiviral – have fared well from the latest scare.

In the week that the swine flu panic was at its height, the share price of GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of the antiviral Relenza, shot up fast, adding $1.3bn to the Company’s wealth.

Over the past 40 years, the drugs industry has produced four antivirals to combat the worst effects of flu. Amantadine was created in 1966 and was eventually followed by Rimantadine in 1993. Today, doctors are reliant on Relenza and Tamiflu, both of which were approved by America’s drugs regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1999.

The leap in the share prices of the drug companies is surprising as at best, the two antiviral drugs can treat only symptoms to make the patient feel more comfortable. It is even more surprising that, despite its limited benefits Tamiflu was ordered by most of the developed countries during the avian flu scare even though it has no potency against either the H5N1 avian virus or the H1N1 swine flu virus.

The emergence of viral resistance to these antiviral agents has also been highlighted in studies of patients who developed flu. However, even if they are not effective, the antivirals are at least considered to be relatively safe. Or are they?

In Japan, one of the first countries to use Tamiflu to counter the avian flu, Japanese health authorities reported eight deaths during the bird flu scare. All of the victims were aged between two and seventeen years. Not surprisingly, the safety of Tamiflu as an anti flu therapy has not been has never been established in patients under eighteen years or among thirteen year olds as a preventative. In 2003, the FDA issued an alert that Tamiflu should not be given to any child under the age of one year, as a reaction to it could be fatal.

Doctors are hoping that the latest swine flu virus is susceptible to Tamiflu and Relenza, although virologists were shocked to discover that even the standard H1N1 virus had spontaneously developed a near total resistance to Tamiflu during the most recent flu season.

Each year, drug companies produce a vaccine to counter the season’s flu virus, and they take their guidance from the World Health Organisation, which lists the flu viruses it believes will be prevalent that year.

Vaccine manufacturers are also faced with the challenge of trying to hit a moving target. Each year’s flu vaccine is a ‘best guess’ scenario, as a flu virus is constantly changing its antigen shape to evade recognition by the host’s immune system and can mutate up to a million times more often than a DNA virus. This means that it is almost impossible for a vaccine an exact fit with a flu virus every year, and why even the annual flu shots are a year out of date by the time they reach the general public.

Another problem is production speed. Only nineteen countries around the world have production facilities that are capable of manufacturing flu vaccines. The World Health Organisation estimates that only 750 million doses a year can be produced, which is not enough to go round, especially if it’s decided that the more vulnerable should be given two shots each.

There are plenty of groups that benefit from a pandemic scare. Drug companies always do well out of any health epidemic – real or imagined – and those who are producing antivirals have seen their company stocks rise in value. Health authorities are glad of it as they can get rid of stockpiles of antivirals left over from previous scares, and they will also not look so stupid for getting it wrong last time. The media also benefit, as scare stories sell newspapers.

But there is no biological evidence or need for pandemics to be cyclical. Viral outbreaks aren’t triggered by blind forces that are out of our control. On the contrary, we – the general population - have a big say in whether or not another pandemic will happen.

Yet, surprisingly, how we can avoid one through better hygiene and nutrition is the only thing that is not mentioned by our health guardians or drug companies.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Andrew Tomkinson is an Information Publisher. For natural treatment for swine and seasonal flu, please click on the link: budurl.com/FluCare