Therapy
Since influenza can be life-threatening, especially for people with risk factors, a visit to a doctor should not be postponed if there is a suspicion of infection with the virus. This is especially true for older people and pregnant women. Treatment of swine flu should be carried out in all cases, even if only the strong suspicion of an infection has been expressed by the attending physician.
In these cases, the therapy can be discontinued by a laboratory after the infection has been ruled out. The therapy of swine flu can be divided into a drug and a non-drug therapy. Drug therapy is based on the administration of anti-viral drugs.
Drug therapy for swine flu is no different from therapy for seasonal flu. Drugs are used which prevent the virus from multiplying and spreading in the body. Nowadays, almost exclusively so-called neuraminidase inhibitors are used in the therapy against influenza viruses, including swine flu.This drug inhibits a protein of the virus called neuraminidase.
This protein is responsible for ensuring that the release of the virus from the body cell works. The drugs block this mechanism, which is why the virus no longer reproduces. The almost exclusively used drugs in this group are oseltamivir and zanamivir.
It is advantageous in the use of these drugs that resistances of the viruses to the active ingredients of the medication occur very rarely. During the pandemic in 2009, however, the swine flu virus developed resistance to the drug oseltamivir. This means that this drug was no longer effective against certain virus strains.
Fortunately, resistance to zanamivir could not spread at that time. Relevant side effects of the drugs mainly occur in connection with the gastrointestinal tract. Nausea and vomiting as well as diarrhea can be caused by taking these drugs.
Asthmatics are not advised to take the medication by inhalation, as this can trigger an asthma attack. It is also important to note that in patients with severe renal insufficiency the dose must be adjusted. In addition to the causal therapy of swine flu, symptomatic therapy can also be given.
Symptoms such as high fever, which occurs in fever episodes, and limb pain can be treated with painkillers and antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen and paracetamol. Since the body is heavily burdened by the strain on the immune system, so-called superinfections can occur. This is an infection of the body with bacteria, as the cells of the immune system can no longer fend them off.
This can lead to heart muscle inflammation, pneumonia or meningitis, for example, which require antibacterial therapy with antibiotics. Especially in persons with an already weakened immune system, these superinfections are dangerous complications of an infection with the swine flu virus. The non-drug therapy of swine flu is mainly a protection of the body through bed rest and sleep as well as a sufficient fluid intake.
