Washington, June 23 (ANI): Canadian researchers suggest that a treatment with the oral antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and prophylaxis for people exposed to infected patients could be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing illness and death during an influenza pandemic.
University of Toronto researcher Beate Sander says that a stockpile of Tamiflu sufficient to cover 65 per cent of a country’s population could nearly halve the risk of deaths.
While presenting the disease modeling research at the leading influenza conference ‘Options for the Control of Influenza VI’ in Toronto, Sander claimed that it was the fist study to analyze the cost-effectiveness of strategies to reduce the spread of pandemic influenza using Tamiflu prophylactically.
Presently, Tamiflu are targeted at treatment only rather than treatment and prevention, as their supply is limited.
But to the contrary, the present study has predicted that the preventative approach may be more cost-effective than treating symptomatic patients alone. It also suggests that the approach may help reduce the impact of pandemic influenza, and even help contain its outbreak.
Sander said that if an unlimited supply of Tamiflu for treating symptomatic patients and for preventing infection in people exposed to these patients was ensured, illness attack rates and deaths could potentially be reduced by more than half, as compared to no intervention.
The researcher reckoned that such a reduction in illness attack rates and deaths could help save around 70,000 dollars per 1,000 population.
Sander also said that other strategies like closure of schools might further reduce the attack and death rate, and provide a health benefit at a reasonable cost.
The study also showed that pre-pandemic vaccination programs would play an important role, but their effectiveness would be dependent upon how well the vaccine was matched to the virus.
“The World Health Organisation provides a strong recommendation for the use of Tamiflu for the prevention of avian flu in people who have been in contact with someone who is known, or suspected of being infected with the virus,” commented Professor Ira Longini, Professor of Biostatistics and Mathematics at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
“This research suggests that a similar approach may also be an effective strategy in the event of an actual pandemic outbreak, especially as it is unlikely that a vaccine fully matched to the strain will be available in the initial wave of a pandemic,” Longini added. (ANI)