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Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of influenza: current and future options
1Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA. kathryn.edwards@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Insights
Influenza in children requires effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Current options include inactivated vaccines and rapid tests, with antivirals like oseltamivir available for early treatment.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Virology
Background:
- Influenza poses a significant health risk to children.
- Effective management strategies are crucial for pediatric populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review current and future options for influenza prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in children.
- To provide an overview of available vaccines, diagnostic methods, and antiviral therapies.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of influenza prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
- Analysis of current and emerging influenza vaccines.
- Evaluation of diagnostic tests, including viral culture and rapid diagnostic tests.
- Review of approved antiviral agents for influenza treatment.
Main Results:
- The inactivated influenza vaccine is currently recommended for prevention.
- Live, attenuated, intranasal influenza vaccine is a potential future option.
- Viral culture is the gold standard for diagnosis, with rapid tests offering immediate results.
- Four antiviral agents (amantadine, rimantadine, zanamivir, oseltamivir) are approved for early influenza infection treatment.
Conclusions:
- Comprehensive strategies involving vaccination, rapid diagnostics, and timely antiviral treatment are essential for managing pediatric influenza.
- Ongoing research into novel vaccines and therapies will further improve influenza control in children.
Abstract:
Because influenza significantly affects the health of children, this review describes the current and future options for preventing, diagnosing, and treating influenza infections. Currently, the inactivated influenza vaccine is recommended for prevention of influenza; however, the live, attenuated, intranasal influenza vaccine is a potential future option. For diagnosis, viral culture is the gold standard, although four rapid diagnostic tests are available for more immediate results. The impetus for rapid results is the availability of effective antiviral agents indicated for early influenza infection. The four currently approved antiviral agents are amantadine, rimantadine, zanamivir [Relenza, Glaxo Wellcome, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC] and oseltamivir [Tamiflu, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Nutley, NJ]. The indications, benefits, side effects and ages for which each drug is approved are reviewed.