Therapeutics
Review: antiviral agents reduce the risk of influenza in healthy adults and alleviate symptoms faster than placebo
Jefferson T, Demicheli V, Rivetti D, et al. Antivirals for influenza in healthy adults: systematic review. Lancet 2006;367:303–13.[CrossRef][Medline]
Q In healthy adults, do antiviral agents reduce the risk of influenza and improve outcomes in affected people?
Public health Infectious disease
Key Words: antiviral agents • influenza (human) • neuraminidase • orthomyxoviridae infections
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Data sources:
Medline (August 2005), EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (June 2005), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (issue 3, 2005), and reference lists.
Study selection and assessment:
randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the prophylactic or treatment effects against influenza of amantadine, rimantadine, or neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir and zanamivir) with placebo, no treatment, or symptomatic treatment in otherwise healthy people 16–65 years of age. 53 RCTs met the selection criteria.
Outcomes:
cases of symptomatic or asymptomatic influenza (confirmed by laboratory testing) and influenza-like illness (clinical criteria only), alleviation of symptoms and viral shedding or load in affected people, and adverse effects.
In prophylaxis trials, amantadine, but not rimantadine, reduced influenza and influenza-like illness more than placebo; neither drug reduced asymptomatic influenza (table
). In treatment trials, both drugs reduced fever at 48 hours (table), but did not differ from placebo for viral shedding at 5 days. Both amantadine and rimantadine increased
Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
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