Early use of antiviral medications may help prevent lung failure in children with the flu Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/05/4962120/early-use-of-antiviral-medications.html#storylink=cpy

By Boston Children's Hospital
Nov. 5, 2012

Excerpt:
Using data from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) ― an administrative database of inpatient admissions from 43 not-for-profit, tertiary care pediatric hospitals in the United States — Randolph, Eriksson, Uyeki and their team compared diagnosis, treatment and discharge data on more than 9,800 children hospitalized with a diagnosis of influenza during the 2009 pandemic against those of nearly 10,200 children hospitalized in total over the three previous flu seasons.
They found that while nearly three times as many children were indeed hospitalized during the pandemic season than would have been expected based on the previous three seasons, the percent of children put on mechanical ventilation during the pandemic was much lower than would have been expected.
Delving deeper, the team also noted that Tamiflu was prescribed much more frequently during the pandemic than other years.


Article:  http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/05/4962120/early-use-of-antiviral-medications.html