DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   33 lines

EVMS WILL TEST NEXT GENERATION OF FLU VACCINE

Someday soon, you might be able to take a prescription to your local pharmacy and buy a medication that fights influenza - even after the virus has launched its attack on you.

Those same medications - inhaled or swallowed - also will keep people from getting infected with the flu.

For some people in South Hampton Roads, that someday may be now.

Doctors at the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, a part of Norfolk's Eastern Virginia Medical School, are testing this next generation of influenza drugs.

And they're looking for volunteers to use them.

The drugs are considered safe and have been shown to be effective in other trials throughout the United States and abroad, said Dr. Stefan Gravenstein, interim director of the center and one of the principal investigators. Working with him is Dr. Margo L. Schilling, an assistant professor at the medical school.

Current flu vaccines, which are injected, create antibodies that neutralize the virus so that it doesn't infect us. The new drugs, called neuramidase inhibitors, are inhaled or swallowed rather than injected. They prevent flu from being released in the body's cells.

Like the current vaccines, it is believed the drugs prevent flu or lessen its symptoms. But unlike current vaccines, the new drugs can ease symptoms even after they've started.

Anyone over 18 may be eligible to take part in the studies. Compensation will be provided. For more information, call 446-7340.

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