About flu vaccines and medicines
What medications do we drink
On October 15, Gennady Onishchenko, assistant to the Prime Minister and former chief sanitary doctor of Russia, accused pharmaceutical companies selling substandard and dangerous drugs of trying to disrupt the annual vaccination against influenza
Vasily Vlasov, MD, Professor of the HSE Department of Health Management and Economics, member of the Formulary Committee of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and President of the Interregional Public Organization "Society of Evidence-Based Medicine Specialists", after a press conference on the problems of self-treatment of the population, explained whether vaccination is really necessary and what is the problem of flu drugsHow do you personally feel about vaccination? Is this a necessary measure?We need to start with the fact that all medicines are harmful and some are beneficial when used correctly.
The same goes for vaccines. There are very effective vaccines with long-term protection against infections. And there are less effective and short-acting ones. Here is an anti-influenza vaccine just like that. The spectrum of viruses changes every year, and it turns out that every year it is necessary to produce a new vaccine. It's not very good without it, and sometimes it also doesn't hit the target, that is, the right viruses. That is why vaccination against influenza has a dubious prospect for each individual. This trend has been observed for about ten years.
Are there any alternatives to the vaccine? There are antiviral drugs.
But there are no highly effective drugs against the flu virus. Therefore, there is a great demand for new drugs. Major global pharmaceutical companies use this and offer thousands of such medicines. However, it is worth remembering that many drugs, having appeared on the market, turn out to be dark horses, and only after years it turns out that they are dangerous, and then they are withdrawn from sale. Therefore, it is best to be treated with drugs that have been on the market for 8-10 years.
Tell us, how is the situation with flu medications today? How tested and effective are the drugs popular today?The situation with flu treatment is quite sad.
A huge number of drugs have been thrown on the market, starting with completely dubious, like homeopathic, and ending with all kinds of immunostimulants, immunomodulators, Chinese teas and other similar means. If we talk about such medicines, then in this case pharmaceutical companies really mislead the population. For example, all homeopathy is a complete deception, these drugs do not contain anything – the manufacturers themselves cannot prove that their products contain something. But there is another side: the lack of a solid evidence base for drugs.
Let's take a look at the anti-influenza drugs that are on the market today from this angle. There are quite a lot of them. Let's take a very popular Kagocel today. Yes, he has clinical trial data. But are these tests satisfactory in their quality and completeness? In my opinion, no, because they absolutely do not prove the effectiveness of this tool. Given the fact that it is very limited tested on humans, I believe that it should not be recommended to children at all, for example. Nevertheless, it is recommended for children. And it may block the function of spermatozoa, that is, it simply causes infertility. For over-the-counter drugs for the treatment of a mass disease, safety should come first.
Or Ingavirin. When swine flu spread, Ingavirin was thrown on the market. But no one has ever tested this medicine against swine flu, they just took advantage of the moment when there was a great demand. So far, there is no evidence that it is effective. Again, there is a case of unsubstantiated pharmaceuticals. And recently a children's form of the drug has appeared. Studies proving the effectiveness and safety have not been published. That's the way things are.
In this case, how to choose the right antiviral agent?First of all, I would recommend following scientific research.
And not those that the drug passed decades ago, but modern ones. Monitor the safety profile of the drug, see what its components act on. These components, in turn, should be studied in qualitative research and recognized by the world medical community. To date, there are few of them presented in Russia: oseltamivir, zanamivir and umifenovir. There is also rimantadine, but the flu virus has become resistant to it. These components should be looked for in the instructions for the drugs. It is dangerous to use combined drugs in which an antiviral agent, for example, rimantadine, is combined with a symptomatic one.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir), which is popular all over the world, continues to conduct efficacy studies. Perhaps independent tests will be conducted this winter and we will find out how effective it really is.
Over the past three years, a major All–Russian trial of Arbidol (the active substance is umifenovir) ARBITER has been conducted. It is testing the drug with the participation of more than 800 patients. That is, manufacturers can claim the existence of an evidence base. I emphasize, not about the effectiveness of the remedy, but about the availability of evidence of this effectiveness. In the end, medicines act differently on everyone, and the reason is not always the drug.
Is it possible to rely on the opinion of a doctor in the treatment of influenza and SARS, or do you need to know all this yourself? Of course, with every cold, running to the clinic will not work, and it is not necessary.
From time to time, you will have to prescribe your own treatment. If you come to the doctor or to the pharmacy, you need to be a little skeptical and know what questions to ask. Why do you recommend this new drug? What kind of research did he go through? How are they confirmed? If you come to the doctor, ask the same questions. Search for information on the Internet. Information about the medicine is the medicine.
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27.10.2015