What good are antiviral drugs?
Antiviral drugs taken very soon after the onset of symptoms make the illness less severe. The H5N1 virus currently infecting birds and that has caused human illness and death is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, two antiviral medications commonly used for influenza. Two other antiviral medications, oseltamavir (Tamiflu) and zanamavir (Relenza) appear likely to treat flu caused by the H5N1 virus, but additional studies still need to be done to prove their effectiveness.
