Rome – Just as governments around the world are stockpiling millions of doses of flu vaccine and antiviral drugs in anticipation of a potential pandemic, two new research papers published today have found that such treatments are far less effective than previously thought.
“The studies published today reinforce the shortcomings of our efforts to control influenza,” wrote Dr. Guan Yi, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, in an editorial that accompanied the papers.
The two studies were published early online by The Lancet, the London-based medical publication, because of their important implications for the coming flu season.
In one paper, international researchers analyzed all the data from patient studies on the flu vaccine performed worldwide in the last 37 years and discovered that vaccines showed at best a “modest” ability to prevent influenza or its complications in elderly people.
“The runaway 100 percent effectiveness that’s touted by proponents was nowhere to be seen,” said Tom Jefferson, a researcher in Rome with the Cochrane Vaccine Fields project, an international consortium of scientists who perform systematic reviews of research data.
In the second paper, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that influenza viruses, particularly those from the dreaded bird flu strain, had developed high rates of resistance to older and cheaper antiviral drugs – rates that have risen rapidly since 2003, particularly in Asia.