Swine flu drug giving children nightmares

Published: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:15:24

Tamiflu, the drug prescribed for sufferers of swine flu, can cause side-effects including nightmares in children. More than half of children given the drug, which was given out as a preventative measure when the outbreak first occurred, will experience some form of side-effect. The research, published in Eurosurveillance, studied three schools in London and one in the south-west, where 51 to 53 per cent of children showed one or more side-effect.

One in five of the children studied suffered "neuropsychiatric side-effects", such as nightmares, confusion and poor concentration. However, yesterday the government said there had been a decrease in the number of children aged between five and 14 diagnosed with the virus in the last week; probably due to the school holidays they said. The government also said the number of cases had reached a plateau over the last week.

The research out today said the antiviral drug could produce stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea. Researchers said Tamiflu use showed a "high proportion" of British schoolchildren showing side effects.

In the research, it was concluded: "More than half (53 per cent) of all schoolchildren taking prophylactic oseltamivir reported one or more side effects. Gastrointestinal symptoms were reported by 40 per cent of children and 18 per cent reported a mild neuropsychiatric side effect." Another study, also published by Eurosurveillance, found more than half of 85 children in three London schools who were given the drug as a preventative measure after a classmate was diagnosed with swine flu, experienced side-effects.

Only those children actually suspected of having the virus are now given Tamiflu, rather than as a preventative measure as previously administered. Government chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, told the Today programme: "All drugs do have side-effects. It is always a case of deciding the balance between benefiting a patient from a treatment and the side-effects.

"Most of the side-effects are relatively minor - a degree of nausea, a bit of a tummy upset, the sort of thing you get quite often with antibiotics."

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