Flu Therapy May Also Help Prevent Flu

A recently developed prescription flu therapy may not only shorten the symptoms of flu, but one pill taken every day by healthy people during a flu outbreak may also prevent them from getting the flu--acting almost like a vaccine, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA has approved the therapy, oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu, Hoffman-La Roche), for systemic treatment of all common strains of influenza (types A&B) in adults and adolescents 13 and over. However, Tamiflu should not be used as a substitute for a flu shot, says the FDA. The best preventive is still to get the flu vaccine.

The flu virus settles into the entire respiratory system and begins replicating 24 hours before symptoms are noted. The virus is highly contagious. An infected person can pass on the disease for four to five days. Around 40 million people in the United States alone develop the flu each year, an average of around 300,000 are hospitalized, and 20,000-40,000 die from the flu and its complications.



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