Experiments in mice show that an antiviral drug currently used against annual influenza strains also can suppress the deadly influenza virus that has spread from birds to humans, killing dozens of people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand since early 2004. This study, the first published report conducted on oseltamivir against the H5N1 influenza strain circulating in Vietnam, found that the drug, sold commercially as Tamiflu, dramatically boosted the survival rate of infected mice. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), funded this research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. Results of the study are now available online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
