The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are pushing doctors to prescribe antiviral medicines more often, as the flu becomes more widespread.
"It's more important than usual" that doctors treat certain patients with Tamiflu or other antiviral medications, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said at a press conference Friday.
Tamiflu is among the top three antiviral medicines pushed by the CDC, along with Relenza and Rapivab.
Doctors are currently prescribing antiviral flu medications to one in five high-risk flu patients, but the CDC believes that number should be much higher, reported The Associated Press.
Antiviral flu medications, when given within two days of the beginning of flu symptoms, can shorten the amount of time a patient is sick with the flu and even prevent them from becoming sick enough to end up in a hospital intensive care unit, Frieden said at the press conference.
"Antiviral flu medicines save lives," Frieden added.
Doctors aren't prescribing these drugs as often as the CDC would like for a number of reasons.
Some doctors prefer to have a lab result confirming the flu before prescribing the drug. Others won't prescribe it if a patient came to them too long after catching the virus because the drug works best in the first two days the virus is in the body, reported AP.
There is also a level of uncertainty about how well the drugs actually work in reducing hospitalizations and complications.
Last year the Cochrane Collaboration, a well-respected international network of researchers, published a review of past studies on the antiviral flu medications, finding that there is no solid evidence that the medications actually shorten the length of the illness or keep patients out of the hospital, reported AP.
