Takeaway
- In patients with severe influenza infection, favipiravir and oseltamivir combination therapy may be associated with greater antiviral effects and faster clinical recovery than oseltamivir monotherapy.
Why this matters
- No previous studies have compared the effects of favipiravir and oseltamivir combination therapy with oseltamivir monotherapy in the treatment of severe influenza infection.
Study design
- Study included 168 patients with influenza who were treated with favipiravir and oseltamivir combination therapy (n=40) and oseltamivir monotherapy (n=128) using data from 2 separate prospective studies.
- Main outcomes: clinical improvement (decrease of 2 categories on a 7-category ordinal scale) and viral RNA detectability over time.
- Funding: National Key Research and Development Program of China and others.
Key results
- Combination group vs monotherapy group showed higher clinical improvement on day 14 (adjusted sub-hazard ratio [sHR], 2.06; 95% CI, 1.30-3.26; P=.0021).
- On day 10, the proportion of patients with undetectable viral RNA was higher in the combination group than that in the monotherapy group (67.5% vs 21.9%; P<.01).
- No significant differences were observed between both the groups in mortality and other outcomes.
Limitations
- Small number of patients in both the group.
References
References