'Antiviral drugs may be wasteful for the elderly'

A model for treatment and infection of influenza shows that if the current swine flu epidemic is as fluent as the 1918 flu, antiviral treatments should be reserved for young people. The researchers found that, in this situation, providing the elderly with antiviral drugs would not reduce mortality, and could lead to an increase in the resistance of the virus.

Stefano Merler, of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, an Italian research organization, worked with researchers from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità to model the impact of antiviral treatment on the spread of influenza. He said: 'Although it is still very early to predict the characteristics of the flu epidemic in progress, the use of antiviral drugs is the only effective measure today, when the vaccine has not been found. However, this requires a huge amount of antiviral medication. Our study demonstrates that even in countries where antiviral reserves are not sufficient to treat 25% of the population, the lowest level set by WHO, it is still possible to reduce the spread of disease and increase survival by using antiviral drugs by age '.

Can antiviral drugs be wasted for older people? (Photo: ageconcernluton.org.uk)

Merler and colleagues modeled the impact of the flu epidemic on the strength of the virus and found that depending on the course or behavior of the virus, treatment for people over 65 does not reduce the case of death. death. He said: 'Although the policy of using antiviral drugs depending on age may be a morally controversial issue, but it is the most effective use of antiviral reserves. This is even more important for countries where reserves of antiviral drugs are below the level recommended by WHO '.

Calculating the overall impact of the disease and the mortality rate depending on age may be the key factor in the most effective use of antiviral drugs in the currently spreading flu epidemic.

Refer:
1. Stefano Merler, Marco Ajelli and Caterina Rizzo.Age-prioritized use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic.BMC Infectious Diseases, (in press) [link]