Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu

Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu.
The unfamiliar H1N1 flu seems to serving many characteristics with the seasonal flu it has fundamentally replaced, a redone study indicates. "Our results are further confirmation that 2009 pandemic H1N1 and seasonal flu have nearly the same despatch dynamics buying. People seem to be similarly contagious when ill with either pandemic or seasonal flu, and the viruses are likely to limits in similar ways," said Benjamin Cowling, lead inventor of a study appearing in the June 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The godly news is that this means the preventive measures form authorities have been recommending, such as frequent hand washing, should be equally in operation against pandemic flu xtremeno. "Influenza is very difficult to contain, but bruited about measures including the availability of pandemic H1N1 vaccines should be able to slacken the worst of any further epidemics," added Cowling, who is an assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong.

Cowling and his colleagues followed 284 household members of 99 individuals who had tested matter-of-fact for H1N1. Eight percent of the household contacts also knock harm with the H1N1 virus, about the same sending rate as seen for the seasonal flu (9 percent), the researchers found.

Viral shedding (when the virus replicates and leaves the body), as well as the composition of true to life sickness, were also like for the two types of flu. The "attack rate" (meaning the fit of people in the entire population who get sick) for H1N1 was higher than that for seasonal flu and the leftovers was most pronounced amid children. The authors hypothesized that this might be due to the fact that younger race seem to have lower natural immunity to the virus.

The patients in this lessons who were given oseltamivir (Tamiflu) did seem to have reduced antibody levels. "This would suggest that c oseltamivir may result in a less vigorous immune response than kinfolk who are not treated with this drug ," said Dr John J Treanor, professor of nostrum and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

So "That is very unalike from studies looking at seasonal flu, where there doesn't appear to be any impression of oseltamivir on antibody response. This should be looked at more closely. It's potentially eminent in terms of long-term susceptibility to re-infection. Susceptibility might be weird in someone treated with oseltamivir who is not vaccinated. They might have enhanced susceptibility".

A wink ruminate on in the journal found that giving Tamiflu prophylactically (as a prevention measure) to populate confined in close quarters - in this case, soldierly installations - seemed to stem outbreaks. Flu is also more meet to spread and spread faster in enclosed places such as schools and hospitals, in adding to military facilities.

In this study, Tamiflu was given to 1100 personnel out of a reckon of 1175 personnel. Before the intervention, 6,4 percent of individuals were infected, compared with only 0,6 percent after Tamiflu was introduced. On average, a child who came down with H1N1 barbecue the virus to only 0,11 additional individuals after the intervention, versus almost two citizenry before smoking. Although a vaccine is elbow for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain, Tamiflu might be an selection in areas where the vaccine is not very likely obtainable, stated the authors, who are with the Singapore Ministry of Defence and the National University of Singapore.