Medical Is Star Anise Tea Better Than Tamiflu for Swine Flu Prevention?

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Worm anise tea is suggested to be more effective than Tamiflu, a widely used antiviral drug developed by Roche. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding the contagiousness of swine flu and the need for widespread vaccination to control its spread. For a contagious disease to be contained, a significant portion of the population must be vaccinated to reduce the average number of infections per sick person below one. The conversation also points out that while Tamiflu is derived from shikimic acid found in star anise, this compound does not possess antiviral properties.
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Perhaps a more effective method would be to determine the contagiousness of swine flu and attempt to vaccinate enough people to bring the contagiousness to below 1. In order for a contagious disease to spread, on the average every sick person must infect more than one other person. For instance, if the contagiousness of swine flu is 2.5 (each infected person infects 2.5 others) then there could be no more than 1/2.5 or 40% unvaccinated people in the general population. Preventing a pandemic would mean vaccinating at least 60% of the population in time to be effective.
 
Incorrect, tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) is synthesized from shikimic acid, which gets isolated from star anise. The compound shikimic acid does not have anti-viral qualities.
 

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