Neuraminidase inhibitors for influenza A and B: Antivirals need to be  protected from adverse conditions to retain effectiveness

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7406.105-c

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.¹These agents would be important during the early phase of anyoutbreak of influenza. Nevertheless, their efficacy would bereduced if they were not primed to resist the adverse conditionsencountered in the field.

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

Designers of prospective influenza vaccines and chemotherapeuticsshould therefore ensure that such products can withstand environmentalrigours while being transported at short notice to differentcontinents during a pandemic. Adding pirodavir and deuteriumoxide to the most labile of the childhood vaccines, live poliovirusvaccine, has resulted . . . [Full text of this article]

Subhash C Arya, clinical microbiologist

subhashji@hotmail.com

Nirmala Agarwal, chief, obstetrics and gynaecology

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

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