Research Shows Tamiflu Might Benefit Transplant Patients With H1N1

A new study published on July 8 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, finds that organ transplant recipients with H1N1 flu who have taken antiviral medications such as Tamiflu, may be able to better fight off serious infection and death.

The recipients of organ transplants are required to take drugs that suppress their immune systems. These drugs lessen the chance that the recipients do not reject their new organs, but it also compromises their immune systems and leaves them vulnerable to H1N1 infection and other related complications.

The focus of the study was 237 transplant recipients (154 adults and 83 children) in North America and Europe who had H1N1 strain A between April and December of 2009 and who had received their transplants an average of 3.6 years prior to their infections. The researchers said that of these patients 167 of them (or 71 percent) were admitted to the hospital, and of these people 37 (16 percent) were sent to the intensive care unit (ICU). Among the 37 patients who were admitted to the ICU 21 required mechanical ventilation. Ten died.

Early treatment of the infections with Tamiflu (oseltamivir) or similar antiviral medications (8 percent who were treated within 48 hours of diagnosis versus 22 percent treated later) was associated with reduced rates of hospital admission and complications of H1N1 influenza, including death.

These findings support the use of antivirals in immunocompromised individuals, but the authors also note that a vaccine should be the key preventative measure in preventing influenza infection.