Cargando…
Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities
BACKGROUND: Due to the lack of timely access to resources for critical care, strategic use of antiviral drugs is crucial for mitigating the impact of novel influenza viruses with pandemic potential in remote and isolated communities. We sought to evaluate the effect of antiviral treatment and prophy...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3931825/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586937 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089651 |
_version_ | 1782304721207296000 |
---|---|
author | Laskowski, Marek Greer, Amy L. Moghadas, Seyed M. |
author_facet | Laskowski, Marek Greer, Amy L. Moghadas, Seyed M. |
author_sort | Laskowski, Marek |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Due to the lack of timely access to resources for critical care, strategic use of antiviral drugs is crucial for mitigating the impact of novel influenza viruses with pandemic potential in remote and isolated communities. We sought to evaluate the effect of antiviral treatment and prophylaxis of close contacts in a Canadian remote northern community. METHODS: We used an agent-based, discrete-time simulation model for disease spread in a remote community, which was developed as an in-silico population using population census data. Relative and cumulative age-specific attack rates, and the total number of infections in simulated model scenarios were obtained. RESULTS: We found that early initiation of antiviral treatment is more critical for lowering attack rates in a remote setting with a low population-average age compared to an urban population. Our results show that a significant reduction in the relative, age-specific attack rates due to increasing treatment coverage does not necessarily translate to a significant reduction in the overall arrack rate. When treatment coverage varies from low to moderate, targeted prophylaxis has a very limited impact in reducing attack rates and should be offered at a low level (below 10%) to avoid excessive waste of drugs. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to previous work, for conservative treatment coverages, our results do not provide any convincing evidence for the implementation of targeted prophylaxis. The findings suggest that public health strategies in remote communities should focus on the wider availability (higher coverage) and timely distribution of antiviral drugs for treatment of clinically ill individuals. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3931825 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39318252014-02-25 Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities Laskowski, Marek Greer, Amy L. Moghadas, Seyed M. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Due to the lack of timely access to resources for critical care, strategic use of antiviral drugs is crucial for mitigating the impact of novel influenza viruses with pandemic potential in remote and isolated communities. We sought to evaluate the effect of antiviral treatment and prophylaxis of close contacts in a Canadian remote northern community. METHODS: We used an agent-based, discrete-time simulation model for disease spread in a remote community, which was developed as an in-silico population using population census data. Relative and cumulative age-specific attack rates, and the total number of infections in simulated model scenarios were obtained. RESULTS: We found that early initiation of antiviral treatment is more critical for lowering attack rates in a remote setting with a low population-average age compared to an urban population. Our results show that a significant reduction in the relative, age-specific attack rates due to increasing treatment coverage does not necessarily translate to a significant reduction in the overall arrack rate. When treatment coverage varies from low to moderate, targeted prophylaxis has a very limited impact in reducing attack rates and should be offered at a low level (below 10%) to avoid excessive waste of drugs. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to previous work, for conservative treatment coverages, our results do not provide any convincing evidence for the implementation of targeted prophylaxis. The findings suggest that public health strategies in remote communities should focus on the wider availability (higher coverage) and timely distribution of antiviral drugs for treatment of clinically ill individuals. Public Library of Science 2014-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3931825/ /pubmed/24586937 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089651 Text en © 2014 Laskowski et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Laskowski, Marek Greer, Amy L. Moghadas, Seyed M. Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title | Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title_full | Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title_fullStr | Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title_full_unstemmed | Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title_short | Antiviral Strategies for Emerging Influenza Viruses in Remote Communities |
title_sort | antiviral strategies for emerging influenza viruses in remote communities |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3931825/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586937 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089651 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT laskowskimarek antiviralstrategiesforemerginginfluenzavirusesinremotecommunities AT greeramyl antiviralstrategiesforemerginginfluenzavirusesinremotecommunities AT moghadasseyedm antiviralstrategiesforemerginginfluenzavirusesinremotecommunities |