Book Excerpt for Beat the Flu

Beat the Flu -- Extract

Protect Yourself and Your Family From Swine Flu, Bird Flu, Pandemic Flu and Seasonal Flu

Richard Stooker

Cover graphic design by Drew at idrewdesign on Fiverr.com.

The right of Richard Stooker to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted in accordance with Sections 77 and 78 of the Copyrights and Patents Act 1988.

Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

7-Periment Immune Defense System #5

Inhibiting the Neuraminidase Protein So Flu Viruses Cannot Break Out of Infected Cells to Spread to the Rest of Your Body, Preventing Viral Replication

Keeping the invaders trapped in the military posts they've taken over, so they can't do further damage

What if, after the invading commando takes over a military outpost and replicates itself -- it can't get out of the building? It's pinned down by snipers, say.

If you can do that to a flu virus it may occupy some cells in your lungs, but it's trapped in them. The new viruses manufactured by your hijacked cells can't escape. It can't attack the rest of your body with millions of Rambo-like copies of itself.

Your white blood cells will eat the cells infected with the virus and the invasion will be over.

To infect the rest of your lungs, it must break out of that cell using the neuraminidase (N) protein.

What if we could lower the neuraminidase so that fewer viruses went on to infect the rest of your lungs?

The NA mushroom proteins on the surface of influenza viruses are more vulnerable to drugs than the HA spikes.

That is the basis for the prescription antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, and the new experimental drug Peramivir -- they're neuraminidase inhibitors. They imitate the neuraminic acid residues (sialic acid) and therefore control a flu infection by keeping the virus trapped in the cells it initially infected -- which keeps it from spreading.

I'll start with them.

But other substances may also accomplish the same task, which is why they're in the Super Immunity Seven.

Tamiflu

Tamiflu is the drug that the media, governments and public health officials are hyping as the solution to bird and swine flu. At least until there's a vaccine.

Tamiflu is the brand name of oseltamivir phosphate. In the U.S. doctors wrote more prescriptions last year for Tamiflu than any other flu treatment.

Tamiflu is a neuraminidase inhibitor. That means it does interfere with the ability of viruses to get out of the cells of your body which they infect. That keeps them from reproducing and spreading the infection throughout your lungs.

Oseltamivir was the first commercially developed orally active neuraminidase inhibitor. In the U.S., the FDA approved it on October 27, 1999. Gilead Sciences created it and sold it to Hoffman-La Roche (Roche). Tamiflu is a prodrug, which means it is usually administered as phosphate. It is hydrolysed hepatically to the active metabolite, the free carboxylate of oseltamivir (GS4071).

It acts as a "transition-state analogue inhibitor of influenza neuraminidase."

A big weakness of Tamiflu is that for most effectiveness you must take it within 48 hours of feeling symptoms. Because once the virus infection spreads through your lungs, it's too late to stop it. So if you feel flu symptoms come on and want Tamiflu, you must start the treatment right away.

For seasonal flu, you take 2 Tamiflu pills a day for 5 days. One pill in the morning and one pill at night. It's not clear whether that will be sufficient to stop a pandemic flu infection. Some say H5N1 requires a double dosage of Tamiflu.

Tamiflu capsules are gray/light yellow and each contains 75 mg. It's available in a liquid form for children (only over the age of 1).

In large clinical trials, flu patients who took Tamiflu felt better 1.3 days (30%) faster than flu patients who did not take it.

Of course, those flu patients had ordinary, seasonal Type A and B flus -- not H5N1 or Novel Pandemic A H1N1/09.

Side Effects of Tamiflu Include:

Nausea

Vomiting

Bronchitis

Insomnia

Vertigo

Diarrhea

Abdominal pain

Dizziness

Headache

Fatigue

In children, they include:

Abdominal pain

Epistaxis

Ear disorder

Conjunctivitis

Another concern:

In Japan, there've been deaths of teenagers given Tamiflu. And others experienced “neuropsychiatric events” -- hallucinations, confusion, convulsions and brain inflammation. Many of them died in their sleep, but two committed suicide.

Back in May 2004, the Japanese health ministry's safety division ordered that Tamiflu's label list possible side effects of: neurological and psychological disorders, including: impaired consciousness, abnormal behavior and hallucinations.

On November 18, 2005, the Food and Drug Administration's Pediatric Advisory Committee reported that Tamiflu posed less risk to children than did the flu itself.

Since Tamiflu is NOT cleared for use for persons under the age of 13, this is confusing. They're saying they believe it's less risky for teenagers than the flu, despite the 12 teen deaths in Japan.

Tamiflu is prescribed much more in Japan than even in the United States, including for teenagers. Of the 32 million people treated with Tamiflu since it came on the market in 1999, 24 million were in Japan.

Between 2001 and 2005, doctors in Japan wrote 11.6 million Tamiflu prescriptions for teenagers. In the United States, there were "only" 872,000 Tamiflu prescriptions written for teens.

Health Canada and European health agencies are also reviewing safety data for Tamiflu.

The U.S. FDA did find that Tamiflu could cause skin irritations.

Should You Take Tamiflu If You Get Flu?

I can't answer that for you.

A lot depends on the circumstances.

It's standard treatment for seasonal flu. You and your doctor must decide whether your flu and your other medical conditions make it worth the risk.

So far, Novel A(H1N1) is not straining the medical system, so victims are getting Tamiflu. However, newly discovered mutations are showing resistance to Tamiflu.

If H5N1 goes contagious and we're in a 1918-style situation you probably won't have the choice.

Or it will be passed out on too much of an ad hoc basis, so you won't get a consistent dose every morning and afternoon for 5 days straight. I would not be surprised to find that in many places doses are given out only once a day -- maybe every few days or so instead of every day.

How will thousands or more poor, sick people who are many miles from home be taken care of during the 5 days of treatment? How many will start their treatment within 2 days of the beginning of symptoms? Especially if they have to walk 3 days to reach the clinic or treatment site?

I suspect that in many cases doctors will begin giving out the doses but will not be able to continue for the full 5 days. They may run out, may be mobbed, may be abandoned by their military protection etc.

Law and order will be difficult enough to maintain.

Should You Stockpile Tamiflu Now?

This is a question I obviously cannot answer for you. I can see a lot of problems with doing that, however.

1. We do not know how much Tamiflu will be required to overcome a pandemic flu.

That means you might buy enough Tamiflu to treat your family for ordinary flu, but it's not nearly enough to knock out bird flu. During a pandemic you probably won't be able to get any more. If you rely on it, and everybody in your family comes down with bird flu during a pandemic, you won't have enough to treat everyone in your family.

If that happens, you could be faced with the cruel choice of giving one or two members of your family enough Tamiflu to save their lives -- while letting the flu run its course in the others and thereby risking their deaths.

Or give everything an inadequate dose of Tamiflu and run the risk that everybody dies.

2. A case of seasonal flu might fake you out of your stored Tamiflu.

Let's say a bird flu pandemic does break out.

You stay home as much as possible but you do have to go to work or out to buy something and while you're in public somebody sneezes on you.

3 days later, you wake up feeling "poorly."

Naturally, you panic. You must have pandemic flu. You go to your local clinic but there's a line of people waiting to get in -- 3 blocks long. By this time you're tired, you're puking . . . you just want to lie down and wait for it to go away.

Very sensibly, you decide that waiting in that line is not worth the additional stress. Besides, you've got the magic bullet at home.

You go home, start taking your Tamiflu and in 5 days you feel much better.

You're Weak but Ecstatic. After All, You've Beaten Bird Flu!

You now have no fear of going out in public. Since you've beaten bird flu once, you're now immune to it.

Somebody sneezes on you again.

3 days later, you wake up feeling sick again. Only this time, it's worse -- much worse. Your local clinic is closed. Your lung feel heavy. You can barely breath. As you lay in bed gasping for air, you realize you have the bird flu.

What happened?

The first flu infection was an ordinary flu. You used up your Tamiflu supply suppressing an ordinary flu infection. It worked.

But then when you got bird flu, you had no more Tamiflu.

If you still insist on buying yourself Tamiflu now, you'll have to find a cooperative doctor. You can buy it online through a Canadian pharmacy, but they want a prescription.

It should be stored in a dry place at room temperature below 77 F (25 C).

By the way, that right there signals a problem if you live in a tropical area, which is where bird flu is currently located. Without air conditioning, room temperature in tropical climates is usually way over that temperature.

You can put it in a refrigerator, but only if you've got one and only if the electricity stays on to keep it cool.

If you get Tamiflu dispensed to you under ad hoc conditions, maybe the WHO or government doctors were not able to keep it stored in a cool place.

I suggest you follow your doctor's advice but do not depend on Tamiflu. It's not a magic bullet even against seasonal flu.

References:

Butler, D. Wartime tactic doubles power of scarce bird-flu drug [News article]. Nature 2005;438(7064):6.

Hill G, Cihlar T, Oo C, Ho E S, Prior K, Wiltshire H, Barrett J, Liu B, Ward P. The anti-influenza drug oseltamivir exhibits low potential to induce pharmacokinetic drug interactions via renal secretion--correlation of in vivo and in vitro studies. Drug Metabolism and Disposition 2002;30(1):13-19.

Kiso M, Mitamura K, Sakai-Tagawa Y, Shiraishi K, Kawakami C, Kimura K, et al. Resistant influenza A viruses in children treated with oseltamivir: descriptive study. Lancet 2004;364(9436):759-65. PMID 15337401

Le Q M, Kiso M, Someya K, Sakai Y T, Nguyen T H, Nguyen K H L, Pham N D, Ngyen H H, Yamada S, Muramoto Y, Horimoto T, Takada A, Goto H, Suzuki T, Suzuki Y, Kawaoka Y. Avian flu: Isolation of drug-resistant H5N1 virus. Nature 2005;437(7062):1108.

Ward P, Small I, Smith J, Suter P, Dutkowski R. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and its potential for use in the event of an influenza pandemic. J Antimicrob Chemother 2005;55(Suppl 1): i5-i21. PMID 15709056

World Health Organization. WHO inter-country-consultation: influenza A/H5N1 in humans in Asia: Manila, Philippines, 6-7 May 2005.

JOC 1998, 63, 4545-4550 and JOC 2001, 66, 2044-2051. Synthesis of Tamiflu. (JOC = Journal of Organic Chemistry) Chimia, 2004, 58, 621