One of the biggest recent controversies in medicine involves the effectiveness of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Governments have stockpiled the drug but many have raised doubts about its usefulness.
Today’s reports suggesting a particularly severe flu season could easily be overstating the case. The figures, released by Influenza Specialist Group say there have been more than 20,000 cases of flu nationally…
Antiviral drugs are largely ineffective for reducing hospital admissions and complications from influenza, and come with serious side-effects, according to a research review published by the Cochrane Collaboration…
Facts about Flu - We’ve considered all kinds of matters related to influenza this week. Now to the heart of the matter. People who think influenza vaccines are highly effective may have been surprised…
Facts about Flu - Perhaps the misery you feel when ill in winter isn’t the fault of the much-maligned influenza virus after all. RSV, hMPV, CoV… these may all sound like random acronyms, but they are influenza’s…
Facts about Flu - What if you needed just one flu shot to protect you from pandemic as well as the yearly seasonal flu viruses in circulation? Imagine you could only identify people by their jackets. Once…
Facts about Flu – Today we consider the ethics of requiring one group of people to have the flu shot as a condition of employment. We’re still looking for ways of preventing and treating influenza, and…
Facts about Flu - We often hear of an expected pandemic and had a scare in 2009 with the swine flu, but how well are we prepared? Although no longer considered an immediate risk, the recent outbreak of…
Facts about Flu - Today, we consider the long-running attempt to evaluate whether the antiviral drug Tamiflu works. There’s a dispute going on at the moment, a war of words with lots of public relations…
Facts about Flu - Ever wondered what flu classifications mean? Read on. The pandemic influenza strain, or swine flu, that spread globally in 2009 was referred to as H1N1 and the new bird flu currently…
Ian Barr, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Facts about Flu - Today, Ian Barr considers advice about who should get a flu shot. Questions about who should be vaccinated against influenza are asked each year as the winter (and influenza) season approaches…
Welcome to Facts about Flu - Our week-long series of articles about influenza. Ever wonder why the flu, coughs and colds that you suffered from in your youth have become a monster killer that rolls out…