NEW ANTIVIRAL DRUG FOR INFLUENZA

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have shown that a new antiviral drug for influenza can treat the infection at the same time as reducing the risk of transmission to others. The antiviral drug, baloxavir marboxil is the first treatment for influenza with a new mode of “action” to be licensed in nearly 20 years. It’s been used to treat influenza in Japan, the USA and other countries since 2018. “Our research provides evidence that baloxavir can have a dramatic dual effect: a single dose reduces the length of influenza illness, while simultaneously reducing the chance of passing it on to others,” said first author Leo Yi Yang Lee, a medical scientist at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. ”Current antiviral drugs only treat influenza illness in the infected patient. If you want to reduce the spread of influenza, people in close contact need to take antiviral drugs to stave off infection.”