Antivirals: Pros and Cons
The flu, and its constantly mutated species, became the “plague” of our century. According to statistics, the threshold of morbidity does not exceed the epidemiological rate, but every year a huge number of people suffer from seasonal outbreaks of the disease. Modern pharmacology offers a wide range of antiviral agents. Doctors, when making a diagnosis of “flu” or “arvi”, are required to prescribe a drug of this pharmacological group. And now you are buying up Arbidol, Ingavirin, Kagocel, and other advertised brands in a pharmacy.
Pharmaceutical companies make a profit, and the patient does not even think that the antiviral efficacy of these drugs has not been proven. Translation of instructions and descriptions of the drug “Tamiflu” suggests that at the moment its effectiveness is almost 100% proven in the case of treatment of influenza type “A”. Unlike the other “players” of the antiviral market.
Conducting research in a clinical setting are fabulous money. A medicine that exists on the market from 10 to 40 years old cannot be considered safe, side effects may occur later. The effectiveness of immunostimulants is especially dubious, since the field of immunology is only beginning to develop, and, as a rule, such drugs have many contraindications.
Analogous treatment or prevention of influenza is vaccination. But most of the population is skeptical about vaccinations, for fear of side effects and immunity-related rejection of the vaccine. Such cases are, but they are usually isolated. Many people confuse the pharmacological effects of vaccines – they are always aimed at preventing a particular strain. You will not get sick with just the flu, other viral diseases – LRZ, SARS or the common cold can break your body immediately after vaccination.
Vaccination in municipal clinical institutions is a free service. A recent translation of the STIKO permanent immunization commission, which operates at the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin), proves that the risk group for the flu includes the elderly, infants, pregnant women and medical workers. German scientists pay attention to the fact that vaccination should be carried out annually, as the strains of influenza mutate each season and become resistant to the existing vaccine.
Russian scientists from the NGO Microgen have already patented a new “smart split vaccine” for the flu. Vaccination contains not only superficial, but also internal antigens of influenza viruses. This technology makes it possible not to use in the composition of the vaccine excipients that increase the resistance of antibodies of the virus. The vaccine will be applied everywhere from 2016. The plans of manufacturers to cover 40% of the domestic market of Russia and the West.
