Is Tamiflu The Best Course Of Treatment For The Flu?
Posted: Monday, August 10, 2009
by Abigail Richards
With the fear of swine flu quickly sweeping the globe, news has been released of the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.
The BBC is reporting that research has been released questioning the effectiveness of these drugs on children.
"Work in the British Medical Journal shows Tamiflu and Relenza rarely prevent complications in children with seasonal flu, yet carry side effects," the BBC reports. "Although they did not test this in the current swine flu pandemic, the authors say these drugs are unlikely to help children who catch the H1N1 virus."
I am not a doctor. I would never claim to be. I am a parent. The concerns for not using these drugs seem minimal to me.
Researchers in the British Medical Journal say the flu drugs reduce the amount of days a child will suffer, but that they do not reduce asthma flare ups, ear infections, etc. They feel the side effects of the drug, which is vomiting, should be taken into consideration as a reason not to give the drug as well as immunities that could be built up.
As a parent, I have to admit that I am a little tired of the immunity argument. I am over 30 and still can be prescribed the same antibiotic I had as a child and it fights my infection.
In my experience, every time a doctor tells me that they want my child's sickness to "run the course," we end up back in the office with a prescription by the end of the week.
Here are my thoughts on the anti-viral drugs. My son suffered from the flu two years ago. We went in the first day to have a doctor misdiagnose him and send us home telling us it was just a virus.
After two days, we were back in with the extremely high fever and he was tested for flu. He was positive, of course. At that point, Tamiflu was not an option because it was past the 48 hour mark.
My son spent seven days sleeping on the floor of our room, wailing in pain from the fever. By the end of it all, he had double ear infections and pneumonia and was eventually put on antibiotics.
He missed an entire week of school.
His best friend was the diagnosed the first day, given the Tamiflu and was back to school only missing two days total. My daughter was given Tamiflu and never even had one symptom.
I know I am not a scientist, but why is it such an issue to give out drugs these days? Shortening the duration of the illness is enough for me. Most times with flu, kids are throwing up anyway. Why would the medicine side effect of throwing up be any worse?
Furthermore, on the subject of restraining antibiotics, I am sure there are people out there with immunities to antibiotics, but I pay to have my kids diagnosed and, by whatever means necessary, made well.
The good news for the UK is that the health department plans on continuing giving out these drugs despite the research.
"The Department of Health said a ‘safety-first approach' of offering antivirals to everyone remains a sensible and responsible way forward, but promised to keep the policy under review," the BBC reported.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Interesting article! I was prescribed Tamiflu a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic (despite the side effects, which were unpleasant but only for 30 mins or so after each dose) - it really helped lift the fatigue and the fever.On the subject of antibiotics, it isn't the people taking them that develop immunity, it is the bacteria themselves, and that is why it is dangerous for them to be used excessively - it leads to strains of bacteria developing that are immune (or highly resistant) to the particular antibiotic in question.This is potentially dangerous for all of us, as we may end up getting a bacterial infection that cannot be treated, or which can only be tackled with different antiobiotics that have more unpleasant side effects for example.This also applies to anti-viral medicines to some extent - overuse could potentially result in new, highly resistant, viral strains that cannot be tackled with our current anti-viral medicines.
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