BMJ  2003;327:105-106 (12 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7406.105-c

Letter

Neuraminidase inhibitors for influenza A and B

Antivirals need to be protected from adverse conditions to retain effectiveness

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Cooper et al outlined the role of neurominadase inhibitors in prophylaxis against and treatment of influenza.¹ These agents would be important during the early phase of any outbreak of influenza. Nevertheless, their efficacy would be reduced if they were not primed to resist the adverse conditions encountered in the field.

Like vaccines, the potency of antiviral drugs is only maintained during storage at controlled temperatures not exceeding 25-30°C.² Inadvertent exposure to temperatures above this could easily happen. Also, in 1992 temperatures inside refrigerators in paediatric clinics in Los Angeles exceeded 8°C in 22% of cases.³ Power cuts are also a threat.

Designers of prospective influenza vaccines and chemotherapeutics should therefore ensure that such products can withstand environmental rigours while being transported at short notice to different continents during a pandemic. Adding pirodavir and deuterium oxide to the most labile of the childhood vaccines, live poliovirus vaccine, has resulted . . . [Full text of this article]

subhashji@hotmail.com

Sant Parmanand Hospital, 18 Alipore Road, Delhi 110054, India

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Relevant Article

Effectiveness of neuraminidase inhibitors in treatment and prevention of influenza A and B: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials

Nicola J Cooper, Alexander J Sutton, Keith R Abrams, Allan Wailoo, David Turner, and Karl G Nicholson
BMJ 2003 326: 1235. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]