High Number of Side Effects With Tamiflu

[jimmydasaint]

It seems that a high number of children have been reporting side effects after taking Tamiflu. Apparently, these include nausea, insomnia and nightmares - pretty frightening if you are a child!

 

Should these antivirals be modified and more extensively tested, and is there a need for Government to legislate for more thorough clinical testing before letting them loose on children? Your comments please.

 

A total of 248 pupils took part in the study and were given Tamiflu prophylactically. Compliance with prophylaxis was high, with 77% of children taking the full course, the researchers said. But they added: "Fifty-one per cent experienced symptoms such as feeling sick (31.2%), headaches (24.3%) and stomach ache (21.1%).

 

The researchers said "likely side-effects were common" and the "burden of side-effects needs to be considered" when deciding on giving Tamiflu to children prophylactically. The researchers concluded that a "high proportion of school children may experience side-effects of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) medication".

 

A spokesman from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it was monitoring reported side-effects by GPs and the public. Between April 1 and July 23, the MHRA received a total of 150 reports of 241 suspected side-effects for Tamiflu and five reports for another anti-viral, Relenza.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090731/tuk-swine-flu-drug-has-side-effects-6323e80.html

[Psycho]

What is better nausea, vomiting and nightmares for a few days or being in hospital and having a higher chance of death.

[jimmydasaint]

That's what I thought at first but the mild flu we had in Britain includes a sore throat, exhaustion and cold virus symptoms- I know because I had it, followed closely by my wife and children. Compare this to nightmares, insomnia and nausea...I don't know...

[insane_alien]

but the more people hwo get it then the more likely a more lethal mutation shows up. tamiflu will imit the number of infections and chance that a lethal mutation becomes widespread.

 

it may have been mild to you and your family but it is already potentially lethal to many others.

[jimmydasaint]

OK i-alien, let's say I go along with that line. The deaths are highly unfortunate and sad for the families that have contracted the flu. However, most, if not all, of the people who died had underlying health conditions. Most people who were ill recovered. If Tamiflu use becomes widespread, what's to say that it will not start off strains of the virus that are resistant to Tamiflu? So now you have two problems - resistance to the antiviral drug and also the spread of mutated forms of flu? I would be interested in how lethal mutations will react to Tamiflu using in vivo models. Any ideas?

[John Cuthber]

"Should these antivirals be modified and more extensively tested, and is there a need for Government to legislate for more thorough clinical testing before letting them loose on children? Your comments please."

We could spend from now till doomsday trying to produce an antiviral without side effects.

Experience shows that absolutely every drug know has side effects so we are probably not going to get an antiviral that doesn't.

 

On the other hand, we need a selection of drugs that can be used to combat flu (and other diseases too).

Since flu is occasionally lethal and the side effects of tamiflu aren't I think the stuff is good enough. (it would be nice if the side effects were milder but ...)

 

Incidentally it's just by chance that (so far) this strain of flu isn't particularly lethal. If it were as dangerous as, the 1918 strain there would be no question about the advantages of the drugs compared to the illness.

When the drug was developed and aproved nobody knew what the next outbreak of flu would be like.

[jimmydasaint]

JC, on 26 July 2009, the Independent produced the following figures:

 

So far in the UK, there have been 30 deaths related to swine flu. Health officials are working on the basis that the virus could kill somewhere between 0.1 to 0.35 per cent of all the people it infects. It is this guide which led chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson to tell the NHS to prepare for up to 65,000 swine flu deaths in a worst-case scenario, although lower projections were also released.

 

In comparison, rough averages show that in Britain:

 

2-3 people die from lightning strikes each year

 

4 from an allergic reaction to wasp and bee stings

 

200 from food poisoning

 

3,000 in road accidents

 

6,000-10,000 from seasonal flu ? although seasons vary in severity

 

155,000 from cancer

 

245,000 from heart disease and strokes.

 

 

http://lifeandstyle.independentminds.livejournal.com/616420.html

 

I take your point about the worst case scenario for the spread of a mutated and highly dangerous virus. However, when the spread of flu is mild, then the approach should be to avoid panic and reassure people and not issue figures of a potential 65,000 deaths from the virus (in a worst case scenario). If it does mutate then the obvious signs would be very high death rates, which are not present as yet.