There are hardly any medicines that are available for treating flu. Among these Tamiflu is the only medication that is good in treating flu. Here I will be covering some of the symptoms of the flu. So this will tell you when you should take Tamiflu and what other medications are available for the flu.

Flu Symptoms

The symptoms for the flu are a sore throat. This is the beginning of the chapter called the flu. This may be either the common flu or the on set of the bird flu. But the sore throat will worsen to a condition where by you will know this is not just a sore throat but something worse than that. It is cobbled in the second chapter by high fever ranging to temperatures above a hundred degree Fahrenheit. And along with this as a sub section to the second chapter of the flu you will be having muscular pains, weakness, loss of appetite and a pain in the chest.

Introduction of Flu shot

This was how it was when the Spanish Influenza struck in the 1918s. It took with it a number of people. The estimated loss of life was about 20 million all over the world. The flu shot was introduced. This is a vaccine against the common flu. People lost their lives not just due to the flu. The flu developed in to the pneumonia and this became a bacterial infection. It caused havoc and the result was that what we faced in the 1918s. But a vaccine when the flu is on you will not be much of an effect. It had to be taken well before you are affected by the flu. The tablets available around that time were Amantadine and Rimantdine. Both these drugs had to be consumed as tablets. These drugs acted like this. They could stop the flu virus from duplicating itself after it had been inside the human cells. They could not mutate and form a group with which they could attack the body. But there were limitations for the drugs Amantadine and Rimantdine. They were effective against only Type 'A' influenza causing viruses. They were ineffective against the type B influenza virus. For this an alternative medicine was to be conjured.

New drugs: Tamiflu and Relenza

It was at the turn of this century that new drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza were formulated. They were effective against both the type A and the type B influenza causing viruses. They belonged to a separate class of medicines called the neuraminidase inhibitors. Tamiflu contained the drug Oseltamivir and Relenza was made of Zanamivir. Both these drugs worked in a similar way. They too could stop the particles of the virus from being released in to the human cells. This limited the spread of the infection.

The medicine Tamiflu is taken as a pill. It comes in the form of a capsule, a yellow grey capsule with seventy five milligram of the drug encompassed in it. There is another form also in which Tamiflu s supplied, it is the suspension form. This suspension form is for children. They are given the medication as per their weight. For a child weighing less than 33 pounds he / she are given thirty milligrams of the medication. All weight categories the medication is given in proper proportions.

Relenza is a drug that required an inhaler to take the drug. This drug is directly inhaled into the lungs. This drug was approved by the FDA at around the same time Tamiflu was approved. However, people who suffered from asthma and other respiratory related diseases faced fatalities after inhaling this drug. Experts in the field have weighed the options against the risk involved when taking this inhalation prescription drug. They have justified the risk involved against the risk of infection.

Tamiflu has been considered too expensive against the older drugs.