here's a better version. It does sound like they are advising Tamiflu
http://www.infection-research.de/news/d ... _pandemic/07 November 2011Children's Hospital Boston/Pediatrics
Why healthy children fell critically ill in the flu pandemic
During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, many previously healthy children became critically ill, developing severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, sometimes fatal. The largest nationwide investigation to date of influenza in critically ill children, led by Children's Hospital Boston, found one key risk factor: Simultaneous infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) increased the risk for flu-related mortality 8-fold among previously healthy children.
Moreover, almost all of these co-infected children were rapidly treated with vancomycin, considered to be appropriate treatment for MRSA. The fact that they died despite this treatment is especially alarming given the rising rates of MRSA carriage among children in the community. "There's more risk for MRSA to become invasive in the presence of flu or other viruses," says study leader Adrienne Randolph, MD, MsC, of the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston. "These deaths in co-infected children are a warning sign."
The researchers hope their findings, published Nov. 7 by the journal Pediatrics, will promote flu vaccination among all children aged 6 months and older. "The 2009 H1N1 virus has not changed significantly to date," notes Tim Uyeki, MD, MPH, of the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a senior investigator on the study. "Infections of children in the U.S. with 2009 H1N1 virus are expected this season and need to be prevented and treated appropriately. Influenza vaccination protects against 2009 H1N1 illness."
With emergency funding from the National Institutes of Health, Randolph and her colleagues in the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator's Network tracked 838 children admitted to 35 pediatric ICUs around the country with probable 2009 H1N1 influenza from April 2009 to April 2010. Their vaccination status wasn't consistently known, but H1N1 vaccine did not become available until September 2009 or later.
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Use of antiviral agents for critically ill patients with influenza is now routinely recommended. In this study, 88 percent of the children admitted to the ICU received Tamiflu (oseltamivir) during their stay, but only 6 percent had received it prior to hospital admission. Randolph believes it's possible that earlier antiviral treatment might have saved some of these children, especially those who died of influenza without bacterial co-infection.
(Children's Hospital Boston/Pediatrics)
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