Back to Avian Flu Homepage

Avian Flu: Scientific Issues

By Ellen, Allison, Daniel, Mike, Alyssa, Liz, Hayley, Cayley, Jenny, Ranee

Antivirals:

What are antivirals?

Antivirals are medication that can be used to treat influenza once a person has already contracted the virus

How can they be used to combat Avian Flu? 

One third of patients encounter a drug resistant strain of the flu virusIn this case antivirals cannot be used for treatmentIt is impossible to know whether the Avian Flu would be drug resistant or notWe cannot be sure whether or not antivirals would work effectively

What different antivirals are available on the market?

Thus far, four antiviral drugs have been created However only three have been approved by the FDA and are commercially available in the United States to prevent influenza AmantadineRimantadineOseltamivirZanamivir is the fourth drug which has not yet been approved may be effective for influenza A virusesOnly Oseltamivir and Zanamivir are effective for influenza B virusesThese drugs must be taken within two days of becoming sick in order to be effectual. These antivirals can:Reduce influenza symptoms, Make one less contagious, Shorten the sickness time by one or two days, Not be used to treat infants under one year of age

How many antivirals does one need to have a day? How many days?

One only needs to take one antiviral per dayScientists have estimated that that the virus will last at least 100 days in one area

How can one obtain antiviral?

Influenza antiviral medications can only be requested by state or territory health departmentsInstitutions such as hospitals or long-term health care facilities who experience an urgent need for these medications can convey their requests to their state or territory health departmentsThese antiviral drugs are not available for individual purchase and cannot be used at one’s desire

What age levels are antivirals good for?

One of the drugs will treat those over seven Another will treat those over thirteenNot be used to treat infants under one year of age

What are some complications or side effects of antivirals?

Most patients do not experience side effectsSeveral serious complications have been observed in studiesBehavioral changesDeliriumHallucinationsAgitationSeizuresRespiratory function deteriorationNauseaVomiting

When the virus mutates, how long will it take to make an alternate antiviral?

At the moment, this question has no answer. This depends on how and when the virus will mutate

Vaccines:

• How are vaccines made?
• One current method for making vaccines is the use of chicken eggs
• The virus, in this case, the bird flu, would be put into the egg, and over time, the egg would produce a sort of cure for the virus which would then be harvested and collected by scientists
• Some scientist are trying to guess how the virus will mutate, and create vaccines on these guesses

 

• How long does it take to find a vaccine?

• Not known yet, don’t know for sure what the actually bird flu strand is, and how it will mutate
• Vaccines would also have to be made to fight off pneumonia and lethal bacteria that could be caused directly after getting the bird flu

• Will the vaccines that are made actually work?
  • Not really known for sure if we can really predict how the bird flu virus will mutate

   

• How close are we to finding a vaccine?
  • Still in testing stages, all we can do now really is predict how it will mutate.
  • Money given from government in support of creating a vaccine

   

• Who should get the vaccines?
  • The people who are at most risk right now and probably need the vaccines the most are in Asia, especially Chinese farmers

   

• What are some problems faced with these vaccines?
  • Scientist can’t predict for certain how the virus will mutate, so if this disease actually spreads, we could have no protection from it
  • Some problems in vaccinating the birds in Asia – when vaccination teams go and give the vaccination to birds, when they travel from one place to the next, they could spread the disease even further
  • Almost impossible to get it to everyone – could be very costly, not everyone able to afford this vaccine, and hard to create such a vast amount of a vaccine in such a short amount of time

How effective is Purell against it?

• Purell kills 99% of standard environmental pathogens

How long can it survive on an inanimate object?

• Hard surfaces (doorknobs or countertops) could be infectious for 2-8 hours after virus is deposited

Source:

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

“Antiviral Drugs and Influenza”

© October 21, 2005

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/antiviral/index.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed