Passive immunotherapy flu trials sort A from B

Two new trials test a treatment strategy used in the 1918 pandemic
Clare Pain
1918 influenza pandemic
Emergency hospital in Kansas, US, during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Results of two trials of immunotherapy for patients with severe influenza have surprised researchers by drawing a blank for influenza A, while providing some hope for treatment of influenza B.

The double-blinded trials, published simultaneously in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, are the first major studies testing the efficacy of an intervention based on the convalescent plasma treatment used in the deadly 1918 flu pandemic.