Xofluza (or Tamiflu) for coming flu season--prophylactic use works
A few month ago I wrote about a new “super Tamiflu” antiviral that was approved by FDA last year (has been used in Japan for about 4 years). Xofluxa is the brand name, drug is baloxavir marboxil. CNN just wrote an article about a study which showed this drug can work post- exposure (prophylactically) to help prevent the spread of the flu if you are exposed. Tamiflu can be used in the same way but a lot of doctors won’t prescribe it for prophylactic use, only if you are already sick (and confirmed with a positive flu test.). The article mentions only Type A was included in the study, but since Xofluza works against both Type A and B using same antiviral mechanism it would follow that it would work prophylactically against the B strain as well.
Maybe now they’ll come around and start prescribing flu antivirals to family members if one person in the family tests positive. They should have been doing this all along! But way too much focus was on the flu vaccine as the sole weapon. With the COVID spread it’s clear we need more than one approach.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/01/opinions/flu-covid-health-care-system-overwhelmed-baloxavir-haseltine/index.html
Japan also haS an antiviral “Favipiravir” that is in clinical trials for its effectiveness against COVID.
https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/stanford-favipiravir-covid19-trial/
