Age-prioritized use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic

Age-prioritized use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic

BACKGROUND The WHO suggested that governments stockpile, as part of preparations for the next influenza pandemic, sufficient influenza antiviral drugs to treat approximately 25% of their populations. Our aim is two-fold: first, since in many countries the antiviral stockpile is well below this level, we search for suboptimal strategies based on treatment provided only to an age-dependent fracti...

The Use of Facemasks and Respirators during an Influenza Pandemic

Predispensing of Antivirals to High-Risk Individuals in an Influenza Pandemic ΠPLOS Currents Influenza

We consider the net benefits of predispensing antivirals to high-risk individuals during an influenza pandemic, where the measure of the benefit is the number of severe outcomes (such as deaths or hospitalizations) prevented by antivirals in the whole population. One potential benefit of predispensing is that individuals to whom antivirals have been predispensed may be able to initiate treatmen...

Antivirals in seasonal and pandemic influenza--future perspectives.

Antiviral drugs continue to be an important option for the treatment of influenza disease and will likely be the only option during the early phases of pandemic. However, the limited number of drug classes licensed for treatment of influenza raises several issues, particularly in the face of drug resistance. Two classes of drugs are presently licensed for treatment of influenza, M2 and neuramin...

Pandemic flu. Clinical management of patients with an influenza-like illness during an influenza pandemic.