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Relenza Dosage
The recommended Relenza dosage for treating the flu in people who are age seven and older is 10 mg, inhaled twice daily for five days. For household prevention of the flu, the dosage is 10 mg, inhaled once daily for 10 days. When using the drug for community prevention of the flu, Relenza dosing guidelines call for 10 mg, inhaled once daily for 28 days.
The dose of Relenza® (zanamivir) that your healthcare provider recommends will vary, depending on a number of factors, including:
- Whether you are treating or preventing the flu
- For flu prevention, whether you are taking Relenza because of a flu case in your household or because of a flu outbreak in your community
- Other medical conditions you may have
- Other medications you are taking.
As always, do not adjust your dose unless your healthcare provider specifically instructs you to do so.
The recommended dose of Relenza for flu treatment (not prevention) in people age seven and older is Relenza 10 mg, inhaled twice daily for five days. Because each blister contains 5 mg of Relenza, you will need to inhale two blisters twice a day. Try to separate the doses as best as possible (about 12 hours apart).
One package of Relenza will contain enough of the medicine for the full treatment, as it has 20 blisters.
There are two different types of situations in which Relenza is used to prevent the flu: household prevention and community prevention. Household prevention is used to prevent the flu in unvaccinated members of a household after one person comes down with it. Community prevention is used to protect unvaccinated individuals during an outbreak of the flu in a particular community.
For household prevention, the recommended dose of Relenza for people age five and older is Relenza 10 mg, inhaled once daily for 10 days. Because each blister contains 5 mg of Relenza, you will need to inhale two blisters once a day. One package of Relenza will contain enough of the medicine for 10 days, as it contains 20 blisters.
For community prevention, the recommended dose of Relenza for people age five and older is Relenza 10 mg, inhaled once daily for 28 days. Because each blister contains 5 mg of Relenza, you will need to inhale two blisters once daily. You will need three packages of Relenza for this 28-day prevention plan, as each package contains 10 days' worth of the medicine.
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD