Until a vaccine for swine flu is developed some months from now, the best hope for treating the illness lies with anti-viral drugs.Read the whole thing!
But if you're healthy or you have only mild symptoms of the flu, experts say you shouldn't take them.
If too many people ask their doctors for prescriptions, supplies of anti-viral drugs could be depleted. People who take the medications unnecessarily can suffer needless side effects.
Perhaps most important, the medications may lose their effectiveness if they are overused, as quick-adapting viruses build up defenses. Indeed, the H1N1 virus causing the current swine flu outbreak appears to be resistant to two older anti-viral drugs, amantadine and rimantadine, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Resistance is a very serious issue that needs to be carefully monitored," said Dr. Frederick Hayden, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
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