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Influenza treatment

**Flu**
Influenza Virus Avian influenza Flu season Research Vaccine Treatment Genome project H5N1 strain

This article is about flu treatment in humans for mild human flu, which includes both efforts to reduce symptoms and treatments for the flu virus itself.

The CDC recommends that patients with flu get plenty of rest, drink a lot of liquids, and avoid using alcohol and tobacco. ^[1]

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1 Antiviral Drugs
- 1.1 Approved
- 1.2 Experimental
2 Conventional symptomatic relief
3 Unconventional treatment
4 References

Antiviral Drugs

These treatments are antiviral drugs that affect the virus itself and may be used as either a prophylactic (that is, before infection) or as treatment. In general, antiviral drugs for treatment of influenza must be taken within a few days of the onset of symptoms.

Due to increasing incidence of drug resistance to amantadine and rimantadine in H3N2 during the 2005-2006 flu season in the United States, the CDC recommended the use of oseltamivir for flu prevention and the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for flu treatment.^[2] ^[3]

Approved

These prescription drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective.

Antiviral drugs to treat influenza
Class	Effective Against	Brand Name	Drug Name (INN)	Year Approved	Manufacturer
M2 inhibitors (adamantane derivatives)	Influenza A	Symmetrel®	Amantadine	1976	Endo Pharmaceuticals
M2 inhibitors (adamantane derivatives)	Influenza A	Flumadine®	Rimantadine	1994	Forest Laboratories
Neuraminidase inhibitors	Influenza A & B	Relenza®	Zanamivir	1999	GlaxoSmithKline
Neuraminidase inhibitors	Influenza A & B	Tamiflu®	Oseltamivir	1999	Hoffmann-La Roche
Note: Neuraminidase inhibitors are approved for prophylaxis use in children and adults.

Experimental

Peramivir is being developed by BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, but has not yet been approved for sale in the United States.^[4]

Conventional symptomatic relief

Over the counter medicines may be taken to relieve influenza symptoms, but they do not affect the virus.

OTC medicines provide relief for 'flu symptoms^[5]
Symptom(s)	OTC Medicine
fever, aches, pains, sinus pressure, sore throat	analgesics
nasal congestion, sinus pressure	decongestants
sinus pressure, runny nose, watery eyes, cough	antihistamines
cough	cough suppressant
sore throat	local anesthetics

Children and teenagers with flu symptoms (particularly fever) should avoid taking aspirin as taking aspirin in the presence of influenza infection (especially Influenzavirus B) can lead to Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease of the liver.^[6]

Unconventional treatment

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

Homeopathic and other cold and flu remedies that fail to meet the regulatory requirements as drugs that treat disease, or the standards of evidence-based medicine, are sold as nutritional supplements.

They may be based on extracts of living things, but may lack documentation of their safety and effectiveness.^{[citations needed]}

References

^ Influenza Symptoms, Protection, and What to Do If You Get Sick. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006-01-14). Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ Smith, Nicole M.; Joseph S. Bresee, David K. Shay, Timothy M. Uyeki, Nancy J. Cox, Raymond A. Strikas (2006-07-28). Prevention and Control of Influenza. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ Altman, Lawrence K.. "This Season's Flu Virus Is Resistant to 2 Standard Drugs", New York Times, 2006-01-15. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ Peramivir Fact Sheet (pdf). BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ Cold and Flu Guidelines: Influenza. American Lung Association. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
^ Molotsky, Irvin. "Consumer Saturday - Warning on Flu and Aspirin", New York Times, 1986-02-15. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.

v • d • e Influenza
Influenza	Research - Vaccine - Avian influenza - Treatment - Genome sequencing - Season
Influenza viruses	Orthomyxoviridae - Influenza A - Influenza B - Influenza C
Subtypes of Influenza A virus	H1N1 - H1N2 - H2N2 - H3N1 - H3N2 - H3N8 - H5N1 - H5N2 - H5N3 - H5N8 - H5N9 - H7N1 - H7N2 - H7N3 - H7N4 - H7N7 - H9N2 - H10N7
H5N1	Genetic structure - Transmission and infection - Global spread - Clinical Trials - Human mortality
Antiviral drugs	Arbidol - adamantane derivatives (Amantadine, Rimantadine) - neuraminidase inhibitors (Oseltamivir, Peramivir, Zanamivir) Experimental (Peramivir)
Influenza vaccines	FluMist - Fluzone
Influenza pandemics	Asian Flu - Hong Kong Flu - Spanish flu - Fujian flu - Pandemic Severity Index
Influenza in non-human mammals	Canine influenza - Equine influenza - Swine flu

Category: Influenza

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Influenza_treatment". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.