TY  - JOUR
A1  - Parra-Rojas, César
A1  - Nguyen, Van Kinh
A1  - Hernandez-Mejia, Gustavo
A1  - Hernandez-Vargas, Esteban Abelardo
T1  - Neuraminidase inhibitors in influenza treatment and prevention – is it time to call it a day?
T2  - Viruses
N2  - Stockpiling neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) such as oseltamivir and zanamivir is part of a global effort to be prepared for an influenza pandemic. However, the contribution of NAIs for the treatment and prevention of influenza and its complications is largely debatable due to constraints in the ability to control for confounders and to explore unobserved areas of the drug effects. For this study, we used a mathematical model of influenza infection which allowed transparent analyses. The model recreated the oseltamivir effects and indicated that: (i) the efficacy was limited by design, (ii) a 99% efficacy could be achieved by using high drug doses (however, taking high doses of drug 48 h post-infection could only yield a maximum of 1.6-day reduction in the time to symptom alleviation), and (iii) contributions of oseltamivir to epidemic control could be high, but were observed only in fragile settings. In a typical influenza infection, NAIs’ efficacy is inherently not high, and even if their efficacy is improved, the effect can be negligible in practice.
KW  - oseltamivir
KW  - neuraminidase inhibitor
KW  - influenza
KW  - mathematical modeling
KW  - epidemics
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56224
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-562243
SN  - 1999-4915
VL  - 10
IS  - 454
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -