Antibiotics: treatment of bird flu or not

[jemmy]

Hello Everybody,
The deadly disease bird flu which causes a no. of death in south East Asia last year is once again in lime light. There are few sign of this disease in some part of Europe this time. With a possible threat of flu pandemic everyone are stockpiling Tamiflu. Tamiflu is the most effective drug used for the treatment of Bird flu. There is a shortage of this drug as this drug is manufactured by Swiss giants Roche after a long and costly process which takes almost 6 months. The whole world is looking toward any alternate. The most important question arises this time is does antibiotic is effective in curing Bird flu.
The answer of this question is no. Bird flu is a viral infection and antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infection. There is lot of difference in both of them. There are 4 drugs used for treatment of bird flu:

• Amantadine
• Rimantadine
• Tamiflu
• Relenza

Amantadine and Rimantadine helps to fight certain strains of H5N1 infections, and Tamiflu and Relenza are said to help against most strains of H5N1. You may visit http://www.drugdelivery.ca/bird-flu.aspx I came across this site while surfing the net. You can also search Google for related topic. You will also get a lot of sites containing good information on Bird flu from there.

[Maxgain]

I dont think anyone was looking for antibiotics for bird flu. Since a human strain of the flu is not in europe ill think ill pass but if i see some migrating birds ill let them know about the site.

Maxgain

[.V.]

Flu is a virus - all forms of influenza are viruses. Antibiotics ONLY work on bacteria. Nothing will kill a virus. All you can do if you get it is take the correct antiviral which will inhibit it's reproduction - then when the living virus cells die off and make no more...you get better quicker. Or die slower - whichever the case is.

[Maxgain]

All them drugs he is selling are antivirals, still would not go near them.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Maxgain

All them drugs he is selling are antivirals, still would not go near them.

Right you are. I didn't look at the names of the drugs, just saw the word antibiotics.

I actually get some amantadine and tamiflu together (enough for the whole family to have a couple of courses of treatment) early in the flu season. Then they generally end up tossed out when the season is over. Just pays to be prepared since they should be started as soon as it is certain that you have flu.

[Maxgain]

I guess if having the flu would be a big risk but for those wiythout complications you really should just rest and let the body heal itself

[.V.]

Then on the other hand, I've never taken the vaccination and haven't gotten the flu in many years - good handwashing, wear a mask if the patient has a cough, things like that. But since I pick up several patients who actually die from flu each year - I don't take chances. I want the meds around.