NZ to continue using Tamiflu despite side effects

[Sally Furniss]

NZ to continue using Tamiflu despite side effects

Health authorities running the anti-swine flu campaign in New Zealand still recommend Tamiflu for children Health authorities running the anti-swine flu campaign in New Zealand still recommend Tamiflu for children
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Tue, 11 Aug 2009 6:32p.m.

By Jeff Hampton

The anti-flu drug Tamiflu has come under fire because of side effects it is causing children in Britain.

A new study claims the risks of giving it to children outweigh the benefits. It says that one-in-20 children experience vomiting, it has little effect on complications like asthma and ear infections and it reduces the illness by just one day.

"What we're saying to parents is they shouldn't be panicked into thinking anti-virals are going to be a magic bullet that reduces complications," says the report's author, Dr Carl Henaghan.

However government doctors still want children with swine flu to get Tamiflu, as they say anti-virals are the only available weapon at the moment.

In New Zealand, health authorities running the anti-swine flu campaign are still recommending it for children.

"We really are focusing the Tamiflu on the people who are most likely to get seriously ill," says the Ministry of Health's Dr Mark Jacobs. "For those people it's important they get it because the benefit outweighs the potential negatives of a bit of an upset stomach."

Forty-one people are currently in hospital with swine flu in New Zealand and so far there have been 14 deaths.

But officials say the number of cases is dropping and Canterbury has already shut down seven of its swine flu centres.

The largest of the flu centres will remain open for another week.

http://www.3news.co.nz/NZ-to-contin...rticleID/116205/Default.aspx?ArticleID=116205

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: NZ to continue using Tamiflu despite side effects

Evidently, for some health experts the antivirals treatment outweighs the potential side effects of the drug.

It is worth to note that other medications, even OTCs, can - if mixed - cause gastrointestinal discomfort both in adults and in those below 18 years old.

Perhaps, where the patient's conditions require, anti-nausea drug will be taken into consideration by doctors.

Sometimes the results of research papers don't cause an immediate change in medical practice and in some cases, the practice itself could demostrate the benefit of a treatment resulted poorly effective in previous studies.

I think health care workers all around the world are trying to do all their best to ensure the most complete recovery for patients with H1N1 2009.

Not all people are driven by money... after all.

 

[tropical]

Re: NZ to continue using Tamiflu despite side effects

#1:
"it reduces the illness by just one day"


If not a resistant form, it is supposed to mitigate the illness and escape the severe dreaded form - by Tamiflu treatment, not only to reduce the time schedule.