Tamiflu – How does Tamiflu compare to other flu medications?

There are hardly any medications available to treat the flu. Among these, Tamiflu is the only medicine that is good for treating the flu. Here I will cover some of the symptoms of the flu. So this will tell you when to take Tamiflu and what other medications are available for the flu.

Flu symptoms

The symptoms of the flu are a sore throat. This is the beginning of the chapter called the flu. This can be the common flu or the start of bird flu. But the sore throat will worsen to a condition where you know it’s not just a sore throat, but something worse than that. In the second chapter, she is paved with a high fever that reaches temperatures in excess of one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. And along with this, as a subsection of the second chapter on the flu, you will have muscle aches, weakness, loss of appetite, and chest pain.

Introduction of the flu vaccine

So it was when the Spanish flu arrived in the 1918s. It took several people with it. The estimated loss of life was about 20 million worldwide. The flu vaccine was introduced. This is a common flu shot. People lost their lives not just from the flu. The flu turned into pneumonia and it turned into a bacterial infection. It wreaked havoc and the result was what we faced in the 1918s. But a vaccine when the flu is on won’t have much of an effect. It had to be taken long before the flu hit. The tablets available at that time were Amantadine and Rimantdine. Both drugs were to be taken in tablet form. These drugs acted like this. They could prevent the flu virus from duplicating after it has been inside human cells. They could not mutate and form a group with which they could attack the body. But there were limitations to the drugs Amantadine and Rimantdine. They were effective only against viruses that cause influenza type ‘A’. They were ineffective against type “B” influenza virus. For this an alternative medicine was to be conjured.

New drugs: Tamiflu and Relenza

It was at the beginning of this century that new drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza were formulated. They were effective against the viruses that cause influenza type “A” and type “B”. They belonged to a separate class of drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors. Tamiflu contained the drug Oseltamivir and Relenza was made from Zanamivir. Both drugs worked in a similar way. They could also prevent virus particles from being released into human cells. This limited the spread of the infection.

Tamiflu medicine is taken in pill form. It comes in capsule form, a yellowish-gray capsule that contains 75 milligrams of the drug. There is also another form in which Tamiflu is supplied, it is the suspension form. This suspension form is for children. Medication is administered according to their weight. For a child weighing less than 33 pounds, thirty milligrams of the drug is given. In all weight categories, the drug is administered in the appropriate proportions.

Relenza is a drug that required an inhaler to take the drug. This medicine is inhaled directly into the lungs. This drug was approved by the FDA around the same time that Tamiflu was approved. However, people suffering from respiratory asthma and other related illnesses faced deaths after inhaling this drug. Experts in the field have weighed the options against the risk involved in taking this prescription medication by inhalation. They have justified the risk involved against the risk of infection.

Tamiflu has been considered too expensive compared to older drugs.