Jb. Walker et al., EFFECTS OF THE NEURAMINIDASE INHIBITOR ZANAMIVIR ON OTOLOGIC MANIFESTATIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL HUMAN INFLUENZA, The Journal of infectious diseases, 176(6), 1997, pp. 1417-1422
Middle ear pressure (MEP) abnormalities are frequently observed during
influenza virus infection and may serve as surrogate markers for the
risk of otitis media, MEP abnormalities were evaluated in adult volunt
eers who were inoculated with influenza A/Texas/36/91(H1N1) or B/Yamag
ata/88 virus and given the antiviral zanamivir (GG167) intranasally as
prophylaxis or early treatment in randomized, double-blind, placebo-c
ontrolled trials, In the influenza A prophylaxis studies, 15% of 61 za
namivir recipients versus 61% of 33 placebo recipients showed signific
ant MEP abnormalities (P < .01). In the influenza A early treatment tr
ial, 32% of 31 infected zanamivir recipients versus 73% of 26 infected
placebo recipients developed MEP abnormalities (P < .01), In the infl
uenza B prophylaxis trial, 16% of 25 zanamivir versus 44% of 9 placebo
recipients showed abnormalities (P = .09), These findings indicate th
at the neuraminidase inhibitor zanamivir, which is effective in reduci
ng experimental influenza illness, provides protection against the dev
elopment of MEP abnormalities,.