This has to be good for Relenza :-)Bird Flu Drug Useless,...

This has to be good for Relenza :-)

Bird Flu Drug Useless, Declares Medical Expert

December 6, 2005

By Jim Kouri

(AXcess News) New York - The Avian or Bird Flu is probably the most feared potential pandemic facing Americans today. US government health officials are currently involved in setting up countermeasures including the purchase of drugs such as Tamiflu, which was endorsed by the World Health Organization.

However, recently the European news media are up in arms over a significant revelation: a doctor who treats victims of avian flu claims the drug being stockpiled around the world to combat a pandemic is "useless" against the virus, according to the Sunday Times of London.

Dr Nguyen Tuong Van runs the intensive care unit at the Centre for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam and has treated 41 victims of Avian flu. Nguyen says that she followed World Health Organisation or WHO guidelines and gave her patients Tamiflu, but concluded it had no effect on her patients' conditions.

"We place no importance on using this drug on our patients," Nguyen said. "Tamiflu is really only meant for treating ordinary type A flu. It was not designed to combat H5N1[Bird Flu] . . . [Tamiflu] is useless."

Her assertion casts doubt on the pandemic flu policy guidelines recommended by WHO oficials, who have been on top of the disease from the time of its discovery.

Van, who has also treated patients with Sars - the respiratory condition linked to birds - said avian flu had a frightening effect on its victims and the only way to keep patients alive was to "support" all their vital organs, including the liver and kidneys, with modern technology like ventilators and dialysis machines.

Roche Pharmaceuticals has sold stockpiles of Tamiflu to 40 countries and insists there is clear evidence it will protect against a future flu virus. However, it stresses the drug must be given within 48 hours to be effective.

The WHO admitted Tamiflu had not been "widely successful in human patients."

"However, we believe in many Asian countries it hasn't been used until late in the illness," a WHO spokesman said.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "While there is some anecdotal evidence of the build-up of resistance to antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu, at present the experience is that these drugs do work."

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