Out of the 900 patients initially planned, a total of 541 patients were enrolled by 145 general practitioners. They were randomly assigned to oseltamivir plus zanamivir (OZ, n = 192), oseltamivir plus inhaled placebo (O, n = 176), zanamivir plus oral placebo (Z, n = 173) ( Figure 1 ). Mean age was 39 y (standard deviation [SD] = 13), 49% were male, 14% had preexisting chronic diseases, mean fever was 38.2uC (SD = 0.8). The mean duration of illness before enrolment was 25 h (SD = 10). Other characteristics of patients appeared well balanced in the three arms ( Table 1 ). The rate of fully compliant patients was not significantly different among the three arms (84% for the OZ arm, 88% for the O arm, and 85% for the Z arm).