Antivirals to the rescue

Abstract

Preventing an infection is always preferable to treating one. Because seasonal vaccines have modest efficacy at best and some people—the young, the elderly, and the immunocompromised—don’t benefit as much from them, it’s important to stock the flu-fighting arsenal with antiviral drugs. At the moment, the only influenza antivirals approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration are the neuraminidase inhibitors, compounds that include Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza (zanamivir). These work by blocking the virus’s surface protein neuraminidase, which allows budding virus particles to break away from infected cells. The problem is these drugs work well only if they’re taken within the first 48 hours after a person has been infected with the flu—a time when most people are just beginning to think that their symptoms are bad enough to warrant a doctor’s visit. After the 48-hour mark, a lot of the sickness an infected person feels isn’t coming