A trial has been launched in the UK to find effective treatments for flu.
It is hoped the move will help combat what experts have called the “persistent menace” which kills many thousands of people globally each year.
The Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy (Recovery) trial – also known as the Recovery trial – was initially set up in March 2020 to find effective treatments for Covid-19.
It has since enrolled more than 48,000 people across the world and will now turn its attention to treatments for influenza.
Flu patients involved will be randomly allocated standard care or standard care plus one of a number of drugs.
The study will initially investigate the effectiveness of anti-viral medicines Tamiflu and Xofluza, as well as low dosages of corticosteroids that have been shown to benefit some patients hospitalised with Covid-19.
In a bad year, as many as 25,000 people in the UK die as a result of influenza— Sir Peter Horby
In June, figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed more than 14,500 flu-associated deaths are estimated to have occurred in England during the 2022/23 season, the highest number since 2017/18.
According to the World Health Organisation, the illness can kill between 290,000 and 650,000 people globally each year.
Sir Peter Horby, Moh Family Foundation professor of emerging infectious and global health in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, and joint chief investigator for the Recovery trial, said flu “remains a serious annual scourge”.
“In a bad year, as many as 25,000 people in the UK die as a result of influenza,” he added.
“Yet we have no treatments that have been proven to improve outcomes in hospitalised patients.
“By including influenza in the Recovery trial, we have the opportunity to change this and find new treatments for this persistent menace.”
As well as the UK, the trial will be open to those hospitalised with confirmed cases of flu in France, Italy and the Netherlands as part of a partnership between the University of Oxford and Ecraid (the European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases).
It will also be open to patients in hospitals that have previously participated in Recovery in India, Nepal, Vietnam, Ghana and South Africa.
Recovery’s expansion into flu has been funded by US-based Flu Lab.
