An Olympic Approach
To Combating the Flu
Early Testing, New Drugs
May Provide the Solution
The fight against flu is moving beyond the
shot.
While the flu shot is still the best way to
avoid flu this winter, the reality is most people don't get
them. But even if you skip the shot, new research shows new
flu tests that doctors can use in their offices coupled with
antiviral drugs can still prevent flu from ravaging your household.
The new blueprint for fighting flu, which each
year infects about one in 10 adults and kills 20,000 in the
U.S., comes from lessons learned by doctors at the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City. The research, presented last week
at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting,
showed that with early diagnosis and antiviral drugs, flu
sufferers got out of bed sooner. More important, family members
who aren't sick can also take the drugs to lower their risk
for catching flu significantly.
The effort to better battle flu started after
Olympic doctors were troubled by the widespread use of antibiotics
among athletes at the winter games in Nagano, Japan, four
years earlier. The issue there mirrored a more common problem:
overuse of antibiotics even though the drugs are useless against
the flu. Typically, about 50% of patients who complain of
upper respiratory symptoms are given antibiotics.
By using in-office tests to quickly diagnose
flu and antiviral drugs, doctors in Salt Lake City reduced
antibiotic use to just 10% of patients who complained of upper
respiratory symptoms. In addition, the early diagnoses of
flu allowed for early use of antiviral drugs, relieving symptoms
for the sick and preventing flu from spreading through the
Olympic Village.
Doctors say the Olympic experience can be used
to battle the flu in nursing homes, dormitories and even family
homes.
Finding Flu: The first step is proper
diagnosis. New rapid flu tests, which use a swab in the nose
or throat, can give results as quickly as 30 minutes, compared
with viral cultures that can take five to 10 days to produce
results -- and by then the patient is often already well.
The tests aren't perfect, missing flu about 30% of the time,
but they are a good way to make an early diagnosis.
At the Olympics "that one step I think
sort of refocused the physicians," says Merle Sande,
professor of medicine at the University of Utah.
Reducing Symptoms: The sooner flu is
diagnosed, the sooner anti-flu drugs can relieve symptoms.
Older anti-flu drugs include amantidine and ramantidine, but
those drugs work only against influenza type A, typically
the more common flu strain.
Two new flu drugs, Tamiflu from Hoffmann-La
Roche and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, a powder taken
through an inhaler, can help relieve both influenza A and
B viruses, with fewer side effects. The Olympic study, which
wasn't funded by flu-product companies, used Tamiflu.
