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Relenza drip saves swine flu patient
Monday September 14, 2009
A swine flu case in the UK has experienced a strange turn of events after a physicians gamble with antiviral drug Relenza brought about an unexpectedly swift recovering.
According to UK paper, The Lancet, a 22 year old cancer patient who was undergoing chemotherapy became infected by swine flu. She was affected severely due to the patient's immune system being already weak from the cancer treatment.
The enterprising doctors administered both Tamiflu and a range of antibiotics when she was admitted with shortness of breath and fluid build up in both lungs in July at the London's University College Hospital. Neither of these had any effect with the patient eventually being placed on an artificial respirator with physicians using Relenza through its licensed form as a nebulised spray.
Physicians reported that the patient did not respond to any treatments as her condition declined over several weeks. It was then that doctors decided to administer Relenza in an unlicensed use through intravenous. In an interesting twist, the standard Relenza was not administered but a batch specially provided by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug's manufacturers. Additionally, the patient was on a course of corticosteroids for lung inflammation.
Within 48 hours, physicians reported a remarkable improvement with the patient taken off the artificial respiration.
The treatment is believed to have worked as it was absorb through the bloodstream by the intravenous drip, as opposed to the spray form Relenza that most patients use to absorb through the lungs. The use of Relenza as an intravenous alternative had to be approved by the hospital's oversight committee with the next of kin also consulted and giving approval.
Research will now continue to see the affects of Relenza on other patients through other means that nasal spray.
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