Tamiflu Almost Killed Daughter of British Television Host
August 12th, 2009Via: Guardian:
The health secretary, Andy Burnham, today defended giving the antiviral drug Tamiflu to children for swine flu as TV presenter Andrew Castle said his daughter “almost died” after taking it.
Burnham was confronted by Castle on GMTV after researchers said the antiviral drug’s benefits did not outweigh its side-effects during the flu pandemic.
Castle said his older daughter, Georgina, had a “respiratory collapse” and “suffered very heavily” after being “just handed” the drug without a proper diagnosis.
The presenter said: “I can tell you that my child – who was not diagnosed at all – she had asthma, she took Tamiflu and almost died.”
Burnham sympathised with Castle, saying it must have been “very worrying”, but maintained that advice to parents to treat swine flu with Tamiflu remained unchanged.
The MP said Georgina would have been given Tamiflu during the earlier “containment” phase of swine flu.
He stressed that the research dealt with seasonal flu, not swine flu: “It’s very much a safety-first approach.”
Given that swine flu had a “disproportionate effect” on children, the minister maintained that the antiviral drug was “our only line of defence”.
Some 300,000 people in England, including children and adults, have received Tamiflu through the government’s National Pandemic Flu Service for England.
But yesterday, Oxford University researchers said children should not be given the antiviral drug to combat swine flu. They urged the Department of Health to rethink its policy on giving the drug to under-12s during the current pandemic.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), warned that Tamiflu could cause vomiting, which could lead to dehydration and the need for hospital treatment.
The researchers said children should not be given the drug if they had a mild form of the illness, although they urged parents and GPs to remain vigilant for signs of complications.
Parents of children with a compromised immune system or a condition such as cystic fibrosis should discuss the harms and benefits with their GP, they said.
But overall, the researchers said, children who were otherwise healthy could suffer more harm than benefit from taking Tamiflu or another antiviral, Relenza.
The researchers also found that using antivirals as a preventative measure had little effect – reducing transmission of flu by 8%.
Research Credit: DO
” the drug without a proper diagnosis.”
Murdering doctor phail. This is the scandal here. They are mostly buyed/bribed/incompetent.
@oelsen:
yes! the answer is: follow the money!
tamiflu is just the tip of the asteroid.
big drug pushers are cleaning up. check their next quarterly…those pachinko balls just keep pouring out of the machine!!!