Vaccines, Drugs No Answer to Birdflu, Experts say

USA : October 11, 2005
Planet Ark

"WASHINGTON - Many governments around the world are stockpiling antiviral drugs and some companies are trying to speed up vaccine production but these measure give a false sense of security and will do little to counter a flu pandemic, an expert cautioned on Monday.

"Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert who has been studying the risk of pandemic flu for decades and is a US government adviser, said governments should be preparing to cope with the pandemic instead of relying entirely on the hope of using vaccines and drugs to control it.

"If the H5N1 avian flu begins to easily infect humans, it will move too quickly for drugs and vaccines to be of much use, Osterholm said.

"'It doesn't matter if we have a vaccine now or not. We can't make it,' Osterholm said in a telephone interview.

"...Experts say it is mutating steadily and fear it will eventually acquire the changes it needs to spread easily from person to person.

"If it does, it will sweep around the world in months or even weeks and could kill millions of people -- as many as 150 million, according to the most dire forecast by the World Health Organization.

"...People have known about the risk of an influenza pandemic for a very long time, said Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota who advises the federal government on such issues.

"'We have had a pandemic flu plan as a planning process since 1976,' said Osterholm. 'Nobody has completed it. It been one of the most long-standing incompleted processes in Washington. Nobody wants to believe that modern medical science can't handle something.'

"But it cannot, said Osterholm, who has seen the current US flu plan. The plan has not been published yet but leaked versions suggest the country has done little to prepare for an H5N1 pandemic.

"...'The one thing I worry desperately about it is the impact of overreliance on neuraminidase inhibitors,' he said.

"There are two drugs in the class -- Roche and Gilead's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza.

"They work to reduce the severity of annual influenza and may prevent infection if used at the right time. Tests suggest they also work against H5N1, but no one knows how well.

"'I think that potentially neuraminidase inhibitors may work if you are already on them as prophylaxis (prevention),' Osterholm said. That would mean taking them daily for days or weeks." Click the title to read the article.

Story by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

With the onset of a possible bird flu pandemic, read Diseases & Impaired Immunity to find out if your own immune system is already compromised. Read more to learn how you can help yourself while waiting for the right vaccine to come along.

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