A Warning About Tamiflu For Teenagers

I generally don't like to include negative things in this blog, but when I discover a health scare related to a drug that children are taking, I feel obligated to include it.

Today in Japan, the government has ordered the importer of Tamiflu to warn that "teenagers should note be prescribed the drug after further reports of abnormal behavior by patients." (reported by AFP, a press service)

Japan wants warnings on the drug that teenagers should not use this drug.
In a case last month, a 14-year-old boy died after leaping from the 11th floor of a building. There are two other cases of teenagers jumping off buildings (luckily they only broke their legs.)

Japan has seen dozens of adults who have killed themselves after taking Tamiflu in treatment for the conventional flu. Why Japan? They buy more than 60% of the world's Tamiflu supply as the drug is considered to be the frontline drug against a global bird flu pandemic.

The U.S. EPA has looked into the connection between these deaths and the drug and there was no connection.

In my opinion, we have heard this same line from the FDA before. And other countries are much more aggressive in banning drugs that affect children. England was one of the first to issue warnings on the ADD drugs that kids were taking.

The lesson is to be very careful giving children and teenagers drugs. We don't seem to know the effects of many drugs on children and have not tested for that. Tests are done on adults.