The study is just getting started at Vanderbilt. Both adults and children 13 and older, with suspected or confirmed influenza who are admitted to the ICU due to respiratory distress, are eligible. Some exclusions apply. Bernard hopes to extend the study to 100 other medical centers in order to capture 2,240 patients before the end of the epidemic. In order to do so, the study needs $3 million to $4 million in funding.

"We decided in August we had a problem that needed to be studied in the next several months and that for the trial to be ready to enroll patients from the current epidemic, it had to begin in early fall," Bernard said. "There is no funding mechanism at the National Institutes of Health, or anywhere else I know of, that could act that fast.

"We have a project that needs funding on an emergency basis. If it's not funded now, it will never get done in our lifetime. This trial provides a unique opportunity to identify the first-ever treatment for influenza other than antivirals, which are clearly not enough."

Source: Vanderbilt University Medical Center