An updated guidance on the use of antiviral agents to treat the 2009 H1N1 influenza infection and seasonal influenza and assist clinicians in prioritizing use of antiviral medications for patients at higher risk for influenza-related complications, has been released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency recommended treatment for patients with confirmed or suspected influenza A (H1N1) infection requiring hospitalization along with other high risk groups for flu-related complications.

The CDC also recommended patients showing warning symptoms or signs of lower respiratory tract illness. It suggests that such patients take immediate antiviral treatment. Physicians are advised to not wait for the laboratory results because the antivirals are most effective within the first 48 hours of the onset of the illness.

New guidance also features the physicians providing the patients in high risk groups with prescriptions that could be filled at the onset of flu symptoms after a telephone consultation with the physician.

Anne Schuchat, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said, "We do feel that prompt treatment is important and that the doctor's office may get relatively busy, and it may be reasonable in some circumstances for a phone conversation to be sufficient for a prescription to be filled".

The guidelines also suggest that physicians can educate the patients in high-risk groups about flu symptoms reducing the delays caused in the treatment. The symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and runny or stuffy nose.