New drug may fight flu in one dose

Washington: Doctors could soon have a new weapon to fight the flu virus as US researchers have found a single-dose influenza drug that can safely and effectively relieve influenza symptoms.

An analysis of clinical trials shows that a single injected dose of the neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) peramivir is safe and effective at alleviating influenza symptoms, including fever and viral shedding, when administered within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, researchers said.

"Based on clinical data, peramivir is the first neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) that has shown to be safe and effective as a single-dose therapy for patients with acute, uncomplicated influenza," said Rich Whitley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"According to a retrospective combined analysis of two clinical studies, a single dose of peramivir, administered intramuscularly (IM), alleviated flu symptoms, including fever, significantly faster than the studies' placebo arms," said Whitley.

In two placebo-controlled studies, involving a combined 427 adults, a single dose of peramivir was given as an injection within 48 hours of the onset of flu-like symptoms.

Study participants recorded their temperature and the severity of seven flu symptoms using a four-point scale for 14 days.

Peramivir was found to be generally safe and well tolerated and effectively reduced the duration of symptoms in peramivir-treated patients.

Compared to patients who received placebo, peramivir reduced median time to alleviation of symptoms by 22 hours, time to resolution of fever by 24 hours and the amount of nasal viral shedding over the first two days following

treatment.

Influenza is a major public health problem. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, it is responsible for over 200,000 hospitalisations and 36,000 deaths annually in the US, researchers said.

Vaccines can be effective in preventing influenza, but changing viral strains make vaccine formulation a challenge, and it is difficult to ensure broad populations are appropriately inoculated, they said.