“Flu Drugs Tamiflu and Relenza Wouldn't be Effective Against
Pandemic: New Research”, published on April 10th 2014 by New York Daily
Times, is a riveting article concerning controversial drugs used in flu
prevention and cure. This article mainly concerns itself with the political and
economic ramifications of stock piling drugs against a potential flu epidemic.
However, as this article explains, not only are the drugs in question universally
uncertified, but recent research has shown that it has little beneficial effect
but many harmful side effects. Such cons include nausea and prolonged vomiting
with only a shortened duration to prove for it. As Carl Heneghan, one of the
lead investigators of the review and a professor of evidence-based medicine at
Britain's Oxford University disclosed, “money has been thrown down the drain because,
until now, the full data had not been seen by regulators, governments, doctors
or patients.” Thus, in essence, governments all over the world have potentially
wasted billions on a medicine that would do little should an epidemic occur.
However, many are hopeful that these measures will decrease the risk of another
epidemic like that of the Spanish Influenza of 1918.
I found this article
particularly interesting because it relates directly to our Spanish Influenza
unit as well as our antibiotic and biotech explorations. Because bacteria and
viruses are ever changing and adapting I am curious to know if these medicines
will prove any good should an epidemic occur. Knowing the ghastly effects of Influenza,
I am comforted by our government’s actions towards protection but am doubtful
of their effectiveness.
This upsets me that so much money was wasted on these poor medicines when, as we just learned, a polio vaccine only costs 14 cents. Hopefully people did not make these medicines knowing they had little affect and had harmful side effects. As you said Rachel I am interested to see if they would have some affect if a flu epidemic were to occur.
ReplyDeleteI also found it disheartening to hear that so much money was put towards such an ineffective drug. Hopefully, future preventative measures can be taken to assure this doesn't happen again. I also liked how you tied the article to something we learned about so recently; it shoes how the flu truly is here to stay unfortunately!
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be really interesting because I hope that the medicine they spent millions of dollars on works, but at the same time I am doubtful to who effective it will actually be. It's concerning that the government would spend so much money on something that potentially won't work. You would think they would do as much research on the subject they are about to spend millions of dollars on.
ReplyDeleteThis is disappointing that some drugs have been made but do not work properly and have so much money wasted on them when there are many other diseases that need money for research too. My parents actually heard of this before and when we are sick, they often encourage more natural remedies. It is an interesting article that presents the information in a easy to understand way and related very well to what we have learned about in class.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy to think that some of the medicines we use when we are sick does not work. I hope someday that all medicines work the way they should. Hopefully soon there will be cures and successful medicines that actually work the way they should.
ReplyDelete