Tamiflu not suitable for Children: TV Personality's daughter 'almost died'

pa.press.net
Health Secretary Andy Burnham has defended giving swine flu drug Tamiflu to children as TV presenter Andrew Castle said his daughter "almost died" after taking it.

Mr Burnham was confronted by Castle on GMTV after research cast doubt that the anti-viral drug's benefits outweighed its side-effects.

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."

Fatal Consequences

Castle said his daughter, Georgina, had a severe reaction, "respiratory collapse" and "suffered very heavily" after being "just handed" the drug without having been properly diagnosed.

All this is in the light of last week, when a 2 yr old child died of Meningitis, after being wrongly diagnosed as having Swine Flu. She and her parents were dismissed and turned away by off-hand, hospital, medical staff.

Sympathy on Offer

Mr Burnham sympathised with Castle, saying it must have been "very worrying", but maintained that the current advice being given to parents to treat swine flu with Tamiflu, remained unchanged, despite the wave of severe doubts and criticisms coming from consultants and specialists alike.

Given that swine flu had a "disproportionate effect" on children, he maintained that Tamiflu was "our only line of defence" or, the only line of defense being considered. A policy that puts children in as much danger from the cure as from the disease.

Specialists Warn against Tamiflu

On Monday, Oxford University researchers made a serious announcement that children should NOT be given the anti-viral drug to combat swine flu. They urged the Department of Health to urgently rethink its policy on giving the drug to youngsters affected by the current flu pandemic.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), warned that Tamiflu can cause severe vomiting in some children, which can lead to dehydration and the need for emergency hospital treatment.

Cure worse than Disease

The researchers stated strongly that children should NOT be given the drug if they have a mild form of the illness. In such cases the cure is worse than the disease. They urged parents and GPs to remain vigilant for signs of complications and to avoid 'off the shelf' solutions and knee-jerk reactions.

Child dies of Meningitis after Swine Flu wrongfully diagnosed by 16 year old responder

pa.press.net

Health bosses are investigating whether a two-year-old girl who died from suspected Meningitis was wrongly diagnosed with swine flu by medical responders, one of which was under age.

16 Year Old Responders
News of her death comes after it emerged at least one call centre for the Government's National Flu Pandemic Service for England was employing 16-year-olds, sparking concern about the inexperience of staff.

Remote or Off-Hand Diagnosis
The parents of Georgia Keeling from Norwich claim paramedics "diagnosed her before even looking at her" and gave Tamiflu before her condition worsened and she died in hospital.

The parents of Georgia, who died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on Tuesday, said they were twice told her symptoms sounded like swine flu before she was finally taken to hospital, in a state of emergency and in the last throws of Meningitis.

Didn't Fit the H1N1 Profile

Their local health centre first said, Georgia 'probably' had swine flu and advised them to call the swine flu helpline. They told them that Georgia had only one of the symptoms and suggested that they should call NHS Direct.

NHS Direct; Dangerously poor advice
NHS Direct then advised them to take the little girl to hospital only if her temperature rose above an astounding 40 degrees C, enough to cause hallucinations and fits in a young child. An hour later, Georgia's condition worsened and her distraught mother called an ambulance.

Paramedic Turned Ambulance away
A paramedic who arrived first said it sounded to him like Georgia had swine flu (H1N1). Having decided that it was a 'False Alarm', and nothing but another 'Hysterical Mother', he advised the ambulance despatchers not to send an ambulance.

Calpol and Tamiflu
Georgia's mother Tasha Keeling was given Calpol and Tamiflu and told to put Georgia to bed, the girl's father said.

An hour later, her near hysterical mother again called for an ambulance again, this tie it came but far too late. Georgia was taken to hospital where she died soon after.

Meningitis; Wrongly Diagnosed
A hospital spokesman said the suspected cause of death was meningitis. Sources said the investigation into the little girl's death would look into all aspects of her care - including the possibility that she may have been wrongly diagnosed as having swine flu.

A Tragedy of Errors
A horrendous story of incompetence and lack of support for the public. The NHS panic about Swine Flu has blinded them to the greater risk of more prevalent and more deadly diseases e.g. Meningitis, Clostridium difficile (C Diff), etc. C Diff kills more people every week in hospital than Swine Flu will ever do.