Treatment and prevention of Bird flu - Dr. Bindu Suresh

Patients infected with bird flu are treated with anti virals such as Oseltamivir and Zanamivir. The antivirals help to reduce the severity of the infection. They are otherwise treated symptomatically to reduce the fever, the runny nose, the sore throat, the aches and pains and the malaise. Patients with respiratory distress are put on ventilators. All patients are isolated. At present, there are no vaccines for bird flu. The common vaccines for influenza do protect the humans to a certain extent to reduce the severity of the infection.