Guidance on H5N1 post-exposure prophylaxis issued
Guidance on post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment for farm workers and others involved in outbreaks of avian influenza due to H5N1 has been issued by the Health Protection Agency. It follows the discovery of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza on a poultry farm in North Suffolk last week.
The guidance,
draft algorithms posted on the HPA website, indicates that
people who have worked on, lived on or visited affected premises and
who have been in close contact with poultry or poultry faecal dust from
48 hours before the onset of clinical symptoms in poultry should receive
prophylaxis with oseltamivir (75mg daily for up to a maximum of 42 days).
People involved in an outbreak who develop febrile respiratory illness
after exposure to diseased poultry should be admitted to hospital and
cared for in strict respiratory isolation regardless of the severity
of their symptoms and treated with oseltamivir (full treatment dose).
Maria Zambon, of the Health Protection Agency, said: “Despite this
occurrence the current level of risk to humans from avian flu is extremely
low. Most human H5N1 infections so far are thought to have occurred through
close contact with live or dead infected poultry. In parts of the world
where widespread infection in poultry has been reported, transmission
of the virus to humans has occurred very infrequently. To date there
is no evidence that avian influenza H5N1 has adapted to spread easily
between humans.”
Sarah Cockbill, committee member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
Veterinary Pharmacists Group, said this week that there is no danger
to humans at present. “Pharmacists should reassure members of the
public who are concerned,” she advised. “It is so small a
risk as to be negligible.” Dr Cockbill added that the bio-security
at the farm involved in the H5N1 outbreak in Suffolk appeared to have
been effective.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader