The present state of swine flu that is being seen around is being caused by a virus by the name of H1N1. This virus combines genes from humans, pigs and birds and forms a very strong component that can severely damage the human immune system if not detected early or treated correctly. Human beings do not have any form of immunity against this virus as it has occurred for the first time ever and the virus has the propensity to spread wide and far at a pretty quick rate considering the number of people who might have already been infected by it. Luckily, the medical experts have already come up with treatments for swine flu.
Swine Flu Medicine and Dose
Tamiflu and Relenza are the patent antiviral flu drugs that were used to cure seasonal flu but it has been rumoured that these do no prove effective for curing swine flu because it is believed that the swine flu virus H1N1 is resistant to Tamiflu. Doctors were also recommended to go back to older medicines such as Symmetrel or Flumadine in order to deal with seasonal influenza virus infection. Which the swine flu virus is immune to the present drugs and the seasonal flu virus is immune to the past drugs, a rough patch of confusion arose when doctors just did not know which drug to prescribe for what flu. However now the drugs have been standardized and also newer drugs are being processed, hence the confusion is more or less settled for the moment.
Since swine flu is predominantly seen to be existing among children, here we will discuss how you can prevent your child from suffering swine flu. Even though Tamiflu is available in the syrup form, doctors do not usually recommend Tamiflu for children below the age of 12 months or 1 year. Luckily however, the Food and Drug Administration does approve of the use of Tamiflu to help children recover from swine flu under an Emergency Use Authorization. If your child is less than 3 months old, he needs to be given 12 mg of Tamiflu twice daily for 5 days, if you child is 3 to 5 months old, he needs to be given 20 mg of Tamiflu twice daily for 5 days and if your child is between 6 to 11 months old, he needs to be given 25 mg of Tamiflu twice daily for 5 days.
Doctors normally suggest that children below the age of 3 months need to take Tamiflu for the prevention of swine flu while children above 12 months of age would take doses of Tamiflu to stay safe from swine flu just as they would to stay safe from seasonal flu.