Reply #107: Tamiflu blocks the NA protein

[Juche]

Of the 8 genes involved in the flu, the NA codes for a protein that the flu uses to escape a host cell after it has invaded it. So it basically blocks the flu virus from escaping and infecting other cells. The HA protein is the one that the flu uses to enter the cell. Something called 'elderberry extract' supposedly blocks both the HA and NA protein, whereas Tamiflu only blocks the NA. Elderberry extract is also easier to get than tamiflu.

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20031222/elderberry-fights-flu-symptoms

However you have to take it (either one) at the very start of infection, and the problem is that people may already be badly infected before they show serious symptoms. By the time they start tamiflu it may be too late to make a difference because people may not take it during the prodromal phase.

H5N1 produces 10x more cytokines than the regular flu. I was always confused during the bird flu panic of 2005-2007 because I never saw anyone actually try to address this fact that it could be your own immune system that kills you, not the flu and that the medical response should reflect that. The medical response always seemed to imply the flu itself is what killed you.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/nov1605cytokine.html

""We have found that infection with H5N1 viruses led to the production of 10 times higher levels of cytokines from human cells than normal human flu viruses," said Peiris, as quoted Nov 12 in The Standard, a Chinese business newspaper."