General Chat

Not really a laughing matter, but my grand daughter (aged 7) has been ill.
Daughter phoned the doc, who said she probably had swine flu - (her not being able to go to the doc meant it was only a possibility!)
She was prescribed Tamiflu on this basis. Daughter diligently drove to the nearest chemist to get it (still pondering whether to give it to grand daughter), only to realise she had no identification of grand daughter with her.
Probably just as well.
The pharmacist went into a long tirade about the nighmares, and other side effects etc, being worse than the flu, and told daughter she couldn't have it - she's pregnant - so would she give this cr*p to her daughter if she couldn't take it!!!
THEN he went on about the government sacking their chemist advisor so would she believe what they suggested? etc etc.
Daughter then told him she was still pondering whether or not to give medication to grand daughter, so it was no loss.

I sooooo agree with him - and her for not just 'jumping in'.

My daughter actually works in the NHS, I asked her how many people this year had died of 'normal' flu, and how many had died of 'swine' flu. Apparently - they've stopped counting!!
All flu's can mutate - and do so every year! The fact that the media have given this strain a name seems to make it more deadly.
Remember - according to the media, we should all be dead with bird flu, asian flu and BSE by now!!

Maggie....I hope your Granddaughter feels better soon .

In the ever more confusing world that we all inhabit it's good to hear that not every one has lost their common sense .

Might be " swine flu " ? ......take these tablets......I wouldn't swallow that either : ))

I think your pharmacist is treading on very thin ice in my opinion.

For one, the reason the chemist was sacked had nothing to do with legitimate medicine, especially Tamiflu, but it was over cannabis. He dared to argue their findings against government policy over class B drugs.

So he had no argument there.

Yes there are side effects, but it's not permanent, and if I was at any risk at all from swine flu, I'd take it. Damn right I would.

As for the amount of deaths from swine flu. True they are probably no higher percentage than normal winter flu, but we are expecting a pandemic. That means statistically there will be more deaths and in a short time, particularly within at-risk groups such as children, elderly, diabetics, asthmatics and so on.

I do take your point about irresponsible reporting by the media, and I've said so on another unrelated thread. But, you have to remember this flu is already wide-spread, and we haven't really got to winter yet.

there seems to be a lot of confusion about Tamiflu and differing advice depending on where you live.
my son (11) had suspected swine flu in July and when I spoke to the doctor she told me that they were NOT giving Tamiflu to anyone who did not have other pre-existing medical conditions because the side-effects were potentially worse than the swine flu itself!
and yet my m-i-l works in a doctors and they have been dishing it out to anyone and everyone who asks since about May.

sounds to me as if there needs to be some consistency and organisation :-)
Maz. XX

The pharmacist's argument was that the side effects were potentially worse than the flu - has it been sufficiently monitored? Quote from aTamiflu website:

TAMIFLU is normally not recommended for use during pregnancy or nursing, as the effects on the unborn child or nursing infant are unknown

They are unknown as one presumes they haven't been tested.

If a scientist can be 'sacked' as he doesn't agree with what the government make of his results - how many other scientific results are twisted?

Remember we went to war on the 'say so' of a student's thesis!

My grand daughter has no known 'underlying ailments' - apart from a sensitivity to chemicals on her skin ie, like many people, some bubble baths can cause dryness.

I quote some of the side effects:
Rare but serious skin reactions and allergic reactions have been reported.

People with the flu, particularly children and adolescents, may be at an increased risk of self injury and confusion shortly after taking TAMIFLU and should be closely monitored for signs of unusual behavior.

The most common side effects of TAMIFLU are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting.

Hmmm - I think daughter was right to be cautious - and I have nothing but praise for the pharmacist. I'm sure, if my daughter had remembered to take along my grand daughters birth certificate, she would have been given the drug- with obviously a word of warning - she still has that option if she gets worse.

Flu is awful - and can be deadly - but to add to that misey vomiting and confusion seems a step too far.

My 3 year old grandson, in the early hours of Sunday morning became unwell, very high temp. terrible bad chest, ear ache, upset stomach, My daughter in law rang NHS help line, who told her the symptons were swine flu. She had to go local walk in centre, given tammiflu. No doc. examined my grandson, nor did the GP want to see him!!!!
25 - 30 years ago if my children had these symptons a doc would olf called at the house, the child would of had a complete examination, and most probally given antibiotics. How do they know it is swine flu when the child as not been seen by a doc. My daughter in law finding it hard to get tammiflu tablets into a 3 year old. having to crush them into his drink.

carol
i think you can get capsules and split um open put it in drink for kids,
im sure of it
i work in pharmacy

it gets my back up they diagnose without seeing

my son 18 had symptoms other week
they saaid do you think it flu i said no i dont
and hes got spots now, blood spots,
well she said straight to A&E so i did take him there, myself,
toold um i wouldnt phone ambulance
he was in all day, they checked him, gave him antibiotics,
he was ok thankfully
viral,

i not convinced by this tamiflu myself

I think that mis-diagnosis is more of a worry than side effects of Tamiflu. It worries me that they are still diagnosing over the phone when the symptoms of meningitis are so similar. OK if you are a switched on parent, but what about those that take these instructions over the phone as gospel. My 20 year old Grandson had what sounded like swine flu last week, he is at uni and his parents were in crete. I was monitoring him via e mail. He got tamiflu for himself (well a house mate got it for him) by filling in an on line questionnaire. It did work with him but I gave him the symptoms of meningitis and he sensible took note. He is fine now but it is worrying.

Maggie, and TW I am sitting on the fence here.... as one of the vulnerable group I will almost certainly have the swine flu jab once it is available... but having had a couple (no, a whole blinking army of them at one time, lol) of the anti virals, antibiotics,anti fungals et al earlier this year... in my opinion, the side effects of at least one of them was worse than the side effects from the chemo... it was probably what has contributed to an improving, but troublesome, problem I still have. So I wouldn't give nor recommend Tamiflu to a child outside the vulnerable group... and not sure that I would take it myself, to be honest, but might change my mind if the situation demands it.

One other thing I will say, Maggie... that the second Gulf war was not conducted on the say so of a student thesis... there was far more evidence than that to suggest there might be at least one *big gun* in existence, but it couldn't be confirmed at that time... but the tiny bit of info that was REALLY misused was the 45 minute deployment...... IF those weapons were still in existence, and IF they were intact, not dismantled and stored in smaller pieces around the country... then they COULD have been directed at Britain within 45 minutes. It was that piece of info that was *tweaked*.

What wasn't available at that time (just before 2nd Gulf war) was information on whether those weapons were still in existence... and for evidence of the *Big Gun* thingy, you'd need to trawl all the reports of the 1st Gulf war, because that is where evidence of it's original existence is. But there is no evidence of it's destruction, I don't think... or whether there was more than one of them.

Love

Daff xxxx

oops.... edit to *tidy up* post.. nothing deleted 'cept signature. lol