TAMIFLU FOR FLU

If I start telling you that Tamiflu is for the flu, then it would not justify the cause of what Tamiflu is or what is the flu. So it will only be just that I start telling you what the flu is, what the types that are prevalent and then I will cover its symptoms. This will be followed by what is Tamiflu and what is it used for. This in itself will tell you that Tamiflu is for the flu.

The Flu

The flu is an infectious disease caused by the viruses. The viruses those are responsible for this are of the two protein types. They are the H protein and the N protein. The H stands for the protein Hem agglutinin and the N stands for the protein Neuraminidase. There are different sub types in these. These sub types are formed by either as a combination of the H and the N factors or they are in their pure forms of the Hem agglutinin or the Neuraminidase. These protein forms are responsible for various epidemics in different parts of the world, as they are the basic cause of the influenza.

Types of Avian Virus

The influenzas caused by these viruses are the type A influenza, the type B influenza or the type C influenza. Some of these viruses are found only and infects only birds. That is, they mutate and develop only in birds and hence they are called the avian type of viruses. These avian types sometimes also infect humans, pigs and some of the species of mammals. They are trying to find a new host by infecting the humans or pigs or weasels. When they find a new host they develop with the body of the host and mutate in to a new strain. These strains may be harmful or may not bother anyone depending in to the strain in which they develop.

Some of the famous epidemic has been caused by these viruses. The H1N1 had caused wide spread mortality to the human species in the year 1981 and took on the name of the Spanish influenza. Other such epidemics were The Asian Influenza and the Hong Kong Influenza. These events took place in the year 1957 and 1968 respectively.

Tamiflu for Flu

In the recent years medications has come out to stop the culture of the virus in the human body. The most used and prescribed medicine among them being the Tamiflu. Tamiflu works in a way whereby it stops the infection at its source. This not only helps in bringing down the symptoms of the flu but helps in completely eradicating the flu.

Some other medications were also developed for the flu but were not that helpful. Amantadine and Rimantdine were the medications that were used in the earlier years. However they could find that these medicines in the form of tablets were effective only against the type A influenza. In the later years, new medicines like Oseltamivir and Zanamivir were developed. They were developed under the trade names Tamiflu and Relenza respectively.

However, Relenza could not prove its mettle on the patient, this being an inhalation medicine. The reasons were patients suffering from asthma and other acute respiratory disorders could not take this medicine as it has proved fatal for these patients in many cases. The use of Relenza was justified to the effect that, if the patient needed it badly enough then he has to take the risk between dying of influenza and trying to take a cure with Relenza.

Now when all this was studied, it was found that there was no better medication than the Tamiflu for the flu.