Posted on 11/25/2007 5:52:07 PM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche's Tamiflu and Glaxo's Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children.
FDA began reviewing Tamiflu's safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions.
Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five deaths resulted from children "falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic."
There have been no child deaths connected with Relenza, but regulators said children taking the drug have shown similar neurological problems.
While FDA said it isn't clear whether the problems are directly related to the drugs, it recommends adding language about the possible side effects to labeling for physicians who prescribe Tamiflu and Relenza.
Besides being a drug side effect, the agency said the behaviors alternately could result from an unusual strain of flu or a rare genetic reaction to the drug.
Company representatives were not immediately available for comment.
It sure affected my kids’ behavior. He kept running around the table trying to hide from the shot
There has been an ongoing discussion about the lack of standards related to vaccine validation relative to other meds.
My bad. I wrongly got it in my head that it was the flu vaccine not tamiflu.
But tamiflu does seem to fall into that category of doing no wrong. Maybe this was due to the anti-terrorist ( anthrax?) application after 911.
I couldn’t say. We haven’t had a case of the flu in our family in almost 20 minutes.
Aargh. My son walked in the room and my brain ran screaming out the door.
I meant 20 YEARS!
Because the safer and equally effective alternative hasn’t been found. There are lots of claims on the Internet. The one natural treatment for influenza you might want to investigate is Elderberry (Sambucol and others). It has performed well in trials.
Good to know, I was worried that your was family dropping like flies ;)
Thanks for the ping Smokin’ Joe,here’s a bump.
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