Andy Burham, the health secretary, has refuted claims that giving Tamiflu to children may be more dangerous than leaving them to fight the infection of by themselves.
A study in the British Medical Journal indicated that both Tamiflu and Relenza rarely prevented children suffering from seasonal flu from developing complications, but did leave them with a variety of side effects.
Burnham went on GMTV (his favourite place) and was forced to respond to presenter Andrew Sweet when he claimed that his 16-year old daughter nearly died after being given Tamiflu without being properly diagnosed. She has asthma.
The secretary was sympathetic but said that advice to parents regarding Tamiflu had not changed. He described the government strategy as “very much a safety-first approach.” He then concluded that as swine flu hit children especially hard, Tamiflu was the only option.
University of Oxford researchers urgently called on the Department of Health to reconsider its pandemic strategy, as they said that the government was pursuing an “inappropriate strategy.” Their study showed that children without underlying health problems recovered only between half a day to a day quicker.
However 1 in 20 children given the medicine suffered from vomiting, which can lead to dehydration and eventual hospitalisation. There have also been reports of under-14s experiencing hallucinations and nightmares.
The Oxford team said that wide-spread prescription of Tamiflu was unnecessary and could lead to the virus becoming resistant against anti-virals. Since the National Pandemic Flu Service was launched a few weeks ago, over 300,000 people have been prescribed anti-virals, with the largest group being the under-15s.