GENEVA (AFP) – The World Health Organisation on Thursday called on doctors to use antiviral drugs swiftly on the most vulnerable swine flu patients, to prevent severe cases and avoid swamping hospitals.

WHO clinical expert Niki Shindo said the agency would issue new guidelines targeting three key groups in countries where the A(H1N1) virus is spreading, to avoid severe cases that could kill within a week.

However, Shindo emphasised that the “vast majority” of pandemic swine flu cases were mild and victims recovered within days without the need for treatment or hospitalisation.

“Firstly, people in at-risk groups need to be treated with antivirals as soon as possible when they have flu symptoms, this includes pregnant women, children under two years old, and people with underlying conditions,” she said.

The other two groups were people with rapidly worsening symptoms, such as breathing difficulties and high fever for more than three days, while those found with pneumonia should be treated immediately with antivirals and antibiotics.

“I want to stress that people who are not from the at-risk groups… need not take antivirals,” Shindo told journalists during a conference call.

“We are not recommending taking antivirals if otherwise healthy people are experiencing only mild illness, or as a preventive measure.”

When asked in recent months about the preventive administration of antivirals in some European nations, WHO officials had largely left it up to countries to decide.

The UN health agency refined its guidance after in-depth studies of swine flu cases and clinical treatment found that early administration of drugs like Tamiflu in some instances could avoid potentially fatal severe cases.

“The virus is quite stable, the disease pattern did not change either,” Shindo said.

“The reason we are updating now is that we can confidently say now that early antiviral treatment can make a difference in terms of preventing severe illness and death.”

Shindo noted that Ukraine, Afghanistan and Mongolia had reported hospitals and clinics being “overwhelmed” by pandemic flu cases.

However, in Ukraine, the proportion of severe cases was less than those found in the southern hemisphere, and people appeared to have been admitted to hospitals there with “milder symptoms than needed” for intensive care, she added.

In Mongolia, pregnant women were “over-represented” amongst hospitalised flu cases, Shindo said, without giving details.

The WHO recently added Ukraine, Afghanistan, Belarus and Azerbaijan to the list of poorer countries receiving deliveries from the agency’s aid stockpile of antiviral drugs.

The global death toll from flu pandemic passed the 6,000 mark last week according to the UN health agency.

The A(H1N1) virus has swept around the world since it was first identified in Mexico and the United States in April 2008, spreading into at least 199 countries.

The pandemic is currently surging in the northern hemisphere with the onset of colder weather.

======================

WHO, 임신부 · 2살 이하 소아 타미플루 조기투여 권장

출처 : 헬스코리아 2009년 11월 13일 (금) 08:38:04  주민우 기자  admin@hkn24.com 
 
 
[헬스코리아뉴스] 세계보건기구(WHO)는 12일 임신부 등 고위험군은 신종플루 확진 전이라도 타미플루나 릴렌자 투여를 권고했다.

WHO 글로벌 인플루엔자 대책반 니키 신도 박사는 임신부와 2살 이하 소아, 만성질환자 등 취약그룹 환자들에게 항바이러스제를 조기에 처방하면 합병증으로 발전할 위험성을 줄일 수 있다고 말했다.

그러나 건강한 사람들은 증세가 빠르게 악화되거나 다른 치료수단이 없는 경우에만 타미플루등 항바이러스제를 복용해야 한다고 지적했다.