A new study confirms that Tamiflu, a treatment for influenza, offers no health benefits for patients if administered in double the normal dose

Doctors at 13 hospitals in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam tested the idea on 326 patients with severe flu symptoms.
Doubling the dose did not ease the duration of the illness, diminish virus levels or alter the risk of death compared with the standard dose, they reported in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). But there was no difference in side effects, either.
Tests on the patients showed five strains of influenza. Most had seasonal flu or the 2009 pandemic H1N1 strain, but a small number (5.2 percent) had H5N1 "bird" flu, a highly dangerous type that causes death in nearly 60 percent of diagnosed cases.
None had the H7N9 flu that has emerged this year in China. A total of 130 people have been infected and 37 died since the H7N9 outbreak started in February.
Tamiflu belongs to a small class of drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors, designed to inhibit the flu virus' reproduction.
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Source-AFP