More Tamiflu being taken than needed, doctors say
Jan Jarvis
Oct 03, 2009 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
After the quick flu death of a healthy Benbrook teenager this week, more parents are demanding that their children be given Tamiflu when they come down with flu-like symptoms.
"No question about it, more Tamiflu is being prescribed than is really needed," said Dr. John Menchaca, a Fort Worth pediatrician. "But unfortunately the level of anxiety for families is currently quite high."
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released about 22,000 doses of liquid Tamiflu to Texas this week, but it's still being distributed to pharmacies and clinics, said Doug McBride, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
There's a limited supply in Tarrant County.
"Right now you can get Tamiflu, but it's not easy," said Dr. Donald Murphey, an infectious-disease pediatrician for Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.
And what is available should be reserved for those who need it most, including pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions, he said.
"If every person who has the flu went to get Tamiflu, there would be none," Murphey said.
Doctor's offices and emergency rooms across North Texas remain packed with people seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms. The H1N1 influenza, now widespread in 27 states, is not likely to go away anytime soon, and seasonal flu could be around the corner.
"H1N1 has blossomed all around North Texas, even in our little towns, and really all across the U.S.," Murphey said. "We're still in the upswing. We have not peaked."
In other parts of the country, where the wave of cases started a month earlier than in Texas, swine flu infections are starting to taper off, he said.
Since April, 60 pediatric deaths related to H1N1 have been reported to the CDC. Most have involved children ages 12 to 17 with underlying medical conditions. Nearly two-thirds had neurological conditions, including epilepsy, cerebral palsy and development delays. Three in 4 hospitalizations for H1N1 have been children with at least one neurological problem.
"Kids with neurological problems sometimes have problems protecting their airway and they don't swallow well or cough well," Murphey said. "If they get the flu, they can end up with real serious respiratory problems."
Children with chronic medical problems such as asthma are at high risk with any respiratory infection, but even more so with flu, said Dr. John Fling, a Fort Worth allergist.
Healthy children can also get seriously ill with H1N1. In some cases, they may be more susceptible because of genetic factors that influence how well the immune system responds to this specific virus, Fling said.
"Some individuals just don't mount an adequate immune response when infected," he said.
In most of the deaths, bacterial infections have been largely to blame.
"A third of the children who have died nationwide had bacterial infections on top of influenza," Murphey said
