Drug can prevent spread of flu in families

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- When someone comes down with influenza, giving the inhalant zanamivir to other family members can cut their risk of coming down with the flu by up to 72 percent, according to a study financed by the drug's maker, Glaxo Wellcome.

There is a shortage of influenza vaccine in the United States this flu season. The researchers caution in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, that while zanamivir is not a substitute for the vaccine, it might still be a valuable weapon.

"Although not a substitute for vaccination," Dr. Frederick Hayden and his colleagues at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville said, the drug might be valuable "if vaccines are not available, (or if used) in conjunction with vaccination late in the influenza season," when there is not a lot of time for the body to build up an immunity to the flu virus.

Preventive treatment "with zanamivir is an effective option for preventing the transmission of influenza within households," said the eight authors of the study, six of whom are either employed by Glaxo or have served as paid consultants to the company.

The treatment for one person costs about $40.

Dr. Peter Wright of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine where the study appears, said the new research means that "one case of symptomatic influenza would be prevented in treating 10 cases" with the drug.

Wright said "this represents an impressive capacity to prevent influenza."

Other drugs also prevent the spread of influenza, but their effectiveness has been limited by the virus's ability to shrug off their effects, the researchers said. They said they found no evidence of zanamivir resistance.

The test outlined in the New England Journal was conducted from October 1998 through April 1999 at 15 medical centers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Finland.

Zanamivir, sold under the brand name Relenza, also cut 2.5 days off the course of the disease. Placebo recipients felt sick for an average of 7.5 days versus 5 days for people who got zanamivir, the researchers said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Glaxo Wellcome
Relenza (Zanamivir for Inhalation) for Flu
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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