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.