How newly approved drug could stop flu in its tracks
A single-dose treatment of a newly approved drug, hailed a game-changer, could be the key to curbing the spread of the flu. Here’s how it works.
VIC News
Don't miss out on the headlines from VIC News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A newly approved drug could stop influenza in its tracks and is being hailed a game changer in the fight against the flu.
The drug, called baloxavir, is currently in use overseas to reduce the length of the flu virus, but a new Australian-based study has found it could also be key to stopping further spread.
Researchers from the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, who have been collaborating with the World Health Organisation and the Imperial College London, made the discovery while testing the drug on ferrets.
The single-dose treatment was found to immediately reduce the rate of transmission of the flu, while still reducing the length of infection.
The findings, published today in peer-review journal PLoS Pathogens, could prove crucial in controlling outbreaks in aged care facilities and hospitals.
WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza director Kanta Subbarao said the recent development laid the groundwork for in-human trials and, hopefully, commercial use.
“What this study was designed to do was to see if there would be any additional benefit in terms of onwards spread,” Ms Subbarao said.
“People in contact with someone who has flu are very likely to be infected … the question was if treating the infected person would stop that.”
Ferrets are considered to be the “gold standard” of influenza testing — as they catch and spread the illness like humans — and were used by researchers to mimic a typical household situation.
The animals were monitored with both direct and indirect contact to a ferret infected with the flu, and compared against other ferrets given the currently used influenza drug oseltamivir — a drug that has to be administered daily.
“We already know that in humans influenza spreads by a variety of means (both contact and airborne),” Ms Subbarao said. “What the ferret model did was to try and look at both models — so would you be able to stop the spread if you treated them and see if you would stop the spread if they were co-housed.”
It found the virus was less transmissable by those who had had the drug even when treatment was delayed two days.
Researchers will now monitor the results of a recently launched international human trial, before further studying how the drug works on different strands of the flu.
“It represents a very good collaboration. It’s really exciting,’ Ms Subbarao said.
Baloxavir was approved for use in Australia in February, making it the first influenza treatment with a new mode of “action” to be licensed in Australia in almost 20 years.
MORE NEWS
CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER: KEEPING KIDS HOME KEY