Doctors urged to prescribe swine flu medicine also to patients not in risk groups

No over-the-counter sales of antiviral drugs; paracetamol warning for parents of young children

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Medical officials are urging doctors to prescribe the anti-viral influenza medicines Tamiflu and Relenza to patients with swine flu - even if they are not in a high risk group.
      “Doctors can prescribe Tamiflu to others even when no samples are taken, or when their results will be ready at a significantly later time”, says Eeva Salo of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District.
      Salo says that most people who currently come down with a sudden fever have caught swine flu, and the antiviral drugs are most effective if the patient starts taking the medicines within two days of the onset of symptoms.
     
Minister of Social Services Paula Risikko (Nat. Coalition Party) says that Finland will not follow the lead of Norway, where pharmacies have been given the go-ahead to dispense antiviral drugs without a prescription; such a move would violate European Union regulations.
      Special researcher Tuija Leino of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) says that health officials do not want resistant forms of the virus to evolve, which might happen if the drugs are administered unnecessarily for the wrong diseases.
     
The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in Finland stands at 1,425, but Risikko believes that the real number is in the tens of thousands.
      Nearly 100 patients have been hospitalised.
      The epidemic remains at its strongest in the north of Finland.
      THL research professor Petri Ruutu says that the Ostrobothnia region and North Savo are also approaching the same phase.
      The number of cases is also growing fast in many communities in the south of Finland.
     
About 500,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been delivered to Finland so far. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health estimates that about 50,000 potential cases of the disease may have been averted as a result.
      “In the following weeks, it is expected that about 200,000 doses a week will arrive”, Risikko says.
      Queues at many public health clinics for the shots have grown.
      Risikko says that there are many reasons for this: the vaccine is arriving in the country in increments; priority has been given to health care personnel and people belonging to potential risk groups, and their numbers vary from one community to another.
      Enough of the vaccine has been ordered to be administered to all Finns. However, vaccinations of healthy adults over the age of 25 are not expected to start before Christmas.
     
No new information was available on Thursday on the case of an 8-year-old girl in Tornio who died after coming down with swine flu. The girl had been treated according to instructions.
      Ruutu says that the symptoms that she had exhibited would not necessarily have made her a candidate for treatment with Tamiflu.
     
Parents of children who have been given the swine flu shot have been warned not to automatically give the child the analgesic paracetamol if the vaccination is followed by a fever.
      Terhi Kilpi, head physician at THL, advises parents to administer paracetamol only if the child’s fever exceeds 38 degrees Celsius, or if there is intense pain.
      A recent Czech study indicates that babies who had been administered paracetamol after getting a swine flu shot had somewhat lower levels of antibodies than other children.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Oulu swine flu death not affecting scheduling of H1N1 vaccine (27.10.2009)
  No change in vaccination schedule over swine flu deaths (5.11.2009)
  Swine flu spreading in south of Finland (4.11.2009)
  Swine flu shots found to cause mild symptoms of disease (22.10.2009)

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