Patients clinically diagnosed as influenza who were prescribed zanamivir were surveyed from December 2000 to March 2001 in Japan. A total of 723 survey questionnaires were returned. Following the first zanamivir treatment, symptom relief was reported by 34.9% of the patients within 12 hours, 63.1% within 24 hours and 85.7% within 48 hours. 46.1% of the patients resumed normal activities within 48 hours and 78.0% within 72 hours. 98.8% of the patients reported that the Diskhaler could be used as instructed by the doctor or pharmacist and 92.5% found the device easy or very easy to use. 70.8% of the patients were satisfied or very satisfied with zanamivir, and 89.0% of the patients would recommend zanamivir to a friend. These results showed that 1) the effect of zanamivir started very fast, especially for the vaccinated patients where the effect was more rapid, 2) most of the patients managed to use the diskher properly and felt "very easy to use" or "easy to use", 3) there is no difference of efficacy in spite of with/without underlying disease, and the diskhaer was well accepted by pediatric and elderly patients.