Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jan 03, 2026 21 hours, 37 minutes ago
Medical News: Influenza Remains a Serious Threat for The Vulnerable
Influenza is often viewed as a mild seasonal illness, but for people with weakened immune systems it can quickly become deadly. Immunocompromised individuals include cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, people receiving immune suppressing medications, and those with advanced HIV infection. A new comprehensive study explains why influenza behaves differently in these patients and why aggressive antiviral treatment is essential.
Scientists reveal how new antiviral strategies could transform flu care for immunocompromised patients
Unlike healthy individuals, these patients may not develop classic flu symptoms such as high fever or severe body aches. This leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment. By the time influenza is detected, the virus may have already reached the lungs, causing pneumonia, respiratory failure, or long-term complications. Hospitalization and death rates are significantly higher in these groups compared to the general population.
Why Vaccination Alone Is Not Enough
Annual flu vaccination remains important but offers limited protection for immunocompromised people. Many fail to produce enough antibodies after vaccination, leaving them exposed despite following medical advice. Certain immune suppressing drugs, including those used after transplants or during cancer therapy, further weaken vaccine responses. This makes antiviral drugs a critical safety net once infection occurs.
Antivirals Work Even When Treatment Is Delayed
One major finding of the study is that antiviral medications remain beneficial even when started later than the standard 48-hour window. Drugs such as oseltamivir have been shown to reduce the risk of lung infection, intensive care admission, and death even when started days after symptoms begin. This is particularly important because immunocompromised patients often carry high viral loads and shed the virus for weeks, not days.
Prolonged viral shedding also increases the chance of the virus mutating and developing resistance. These resistant strains can spread to caregivers and the wider community, turning individual infections into public health risks.
Newer Drugs and Combination Treatments Show Promise
Newer antiviral drugs such as baloxavir work differently from older medications. Instead of blocking viral release, baloxavir stops the virus from copying its genetic material. Studies show that it can rapidly reduce viral levels, sometimes within a single day. This rapid reduction may lower transmission risk and shorten illness duration.
However, the study warns that when baloxavir is used alone, resistant viral strains can develop quickly, especially in patients with weakened immune defenses. Researchers have observed mutations that allow the virus to continue replicating despite treatment. This has raised concern about relying on single drug therapy in high-risk patients.
As a result, scientists are increasingly exploring combination antiviral therapy. Using drugs with different mechanisms, such as pairing baloxavir with oseltamivir, may suppress viral replication more effectively and reduce the lik
elihood of resistance. Early clinical data suggest combination therapy can speed viral clearance and may be especially useful in transplant recipients, patients with severe immune suppression, and those infected with novel influenza strains.
Although large trials are still limited, experts believe this strategy could redefine flu treatment for vulnerable populations.
Institutions Behind the Research
The researchers involved in this work are from Duke University School of Medicine, the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States.
Conclusions and the Road Ahead
This
Medical News report makes it clear that influenza antivirals are lifesaving tools for immunocompromised patients. The study concludes that early suspicion-based treatment, longer antiviral courses, and combination therapies may significantly reduce severe outcomes. Most importantly, researchers stress that immunocompromised patients must no longer be excluded from clinical trials.
Protecting these individuals also helps prevent dangerous influenza variants from emerging and spreading globally.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: The Journal of Infectious Diseases
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/232/Supplement_3/S243/8287907
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