Oseltamivir for All: Should It Become an Over‐the‐Counter Medication for Influenza Treatment?

Antiviral Drugs in Influenza

Flu is a serious health, medical, and economic problem, but no therapy is yet available that has satisfactory results and reduces the occurrence of these problems. Nearly 20 years after the registration of the previous therapy, baloxavir marboxil, a drug with a new mechanism of action, recently appeared on the market. This is a promising step in the fight against the influenza virus. This article presents the possibilities of using all available antiviral drugs specific for influenza A and B. We compare all currently recommended anti-influenza medications, considering their mechanisms of action, administration, indications, target groups, effectiveness, and safety profiles. We demonstrate that baloxavir marboxil presents a similar safety and efficacy profile to those of drugs already used in the treatment of influenza. Further research on combination therapy is highly recommended and may have promising results.

Staying InformED: Top emergency Medicine pharmacotherapy articles of 2020

The year 2020 was not easy for Emergency Medicine (EM) clinicians with the burden of tackling a pandemic. A large focus, rightfully so, was placed on the evolving diagnosis and management of patients with COVID-19 and, as such, the ability of clinicians to remain up to date on key EM pharmacotherapy literature may have been compromised. This article reviews the most important EM pharmacotherapy publications indexed in 2020. A modified Delphi approach was utilized for selected journals to identify the most impactful EM pharmacotherapy studies. A total of fifteen articles, eleven trials and four meta-analyses, were identified. This review provides a summary of each study, along with a commentary on the impact to the EM literature and EM clinician.