Correlation of days of illness on which oseltamivir was started with outcome in swine flu patients, in Government Medical College, Aurangabad (Jan-2015 to May 2015)

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong><span lang="EN-US">Background:</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"> Since 2009, Government Medical College, Aurangabad, a tertiary care hospital in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India, has been regularly admitting cases of pneumonia and ARDS, that are labeled as swine flu suspects.</span> Oseltamivir is effective in swine flu cases if given within 48 hours and better, within 24 hours of start of illness. However most of our patients do not get oseltamivir within 48 hours. Hence we decided to compare the outcome in patients who received oseltamivir within 48 hours and after that.</p><p class="abstract"><strong><span lang="EN-US">Methods:</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"> This is an observational, cross-sectional study comparing the time lag between the start of symptoms and getting the first dose of oseltamivir. 59 H1N1 positive patients were admitted to the swine flu ward between January to May 2015. We compared the two groups, one that received oseltamivir within 48 hours of start of symptoms and one that received after 48 hours and compared it with the outcome, i. e survival or death.</span></p><p class="abstract"><strong><span lang="EN-US">Results: </span></strong>38 patients (64.40%) in our study belonged to the age group of 31-50. Out of 59 positive patients, only 7 received oseltamivir within 48 hours, of whom 4 died. 52 received oseltamivir after 48 hours of whom 20 died. All the 11 who were given non-invasive ventilation, whereas only 1 of the 25 on invasive ventilation survived. </p><p class="abstract"><strong><span lang="EN-US">Conclusions: </span></strong>Oseltamavir does not appear to have made a difference for survival whether it was given within 48 hours as compared to after 48 hours of onset of symptoms. However, these two groups were not comparable.</p>