Hey all, Eric Christensen here, pharmacist with the real-life pharmacology podcast.

I'm back at you today with another episode.

And I'm going to cover Ocel tamavir, which is a medication that is indicated in the treatment and prophylaxis of influenza.

It's really at this point our go-to in clinical practice.

Obviously, that can change over time,

so certainly take a peek at guidelines

and be sure to look out for any changes in the future.

But the brand name here is Tamiflu.

And the way this drug works is it inhibits the viral enzyme neuraminidase.

Now this enzyme is necessary for the virus to basically be able to release more virus, proliferate, and obviously go on and continue to infect other cells

throughout the body. With influenza, you know, common classic symptoms, fever, body aches,

upper respiratory symptoms, those are really, upper respiratory symptoms.

Those are really the hallmark symptoms

as far as an influenza infection there.

Now with treatment and prophylaxis,

you've got to remember that there are different doses.

And specifically talking about adults, usual dosing is 75 milligrams once a day and that's

usually going to be your prophylactic dose for a normal healthy adult for a treatment, excuse me me 75 milligrams twice a day and prophylaxis is generally going to be for a

longer period of time treatment of influenza is generally only going to be for five days and if you

think about that that really makes. The usual course of influenza

is probably in that five to seven day period. You know, I can speak from personal experience.

I had influenza several years ago now. And first off, it's not very much fun. The fever and the body aches were definitely intense

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