Last week BMJ questioned this policy, stating a new analysis undermined the evidence that the drug can fight bacterial complications of
ordinary seasonal flu.
In a separate study, Menno de Jong of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, found higher levels of cytokines in tissues from H5N1 victims than in those with
ordinary seasonal flu.
Even so, it seems likely that this virus has a greater mortality rate than either
ordinary seasonal flu or possibly the 1918 pandemic H1N1 strain.