Flu Drugs Causing Bizarre Behavior?

(AP)  Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems 151; including hallucinations and convulsions - 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.

[tngreen]

WELL IF THIS DRUG IS MAKING PEOPLE ACT STRANGE, THE ENTIRE WHITE HOUSE STAFF MUST BE TAKING IT !!!!

Posted by JetRanger7 at 03:07 AM : Nov 25, 2007
_____________

It''s just too bad it''s not making them leap out of windows or run into traffic!

[carlylaine]

drivelphobe

I agree with you 100% and I live in this manner. I hate doctors. They have the mistaken idea that they are our gods on earth.

I''d rather die from my own choices than to die under the influence of a doctor.

[harp1963]

I work in the pharmaceutical industry and regularly read the outserts that come along with the huge variety of medicines we produce. After reading the side effects of most of this stuff, I''d rather have the original problem than the side effects.

Eat right, exercise, get a good nights sleep, and go to the Church of whatever denomination you belong to every week. That will solve most of your health problems.

[limestoneman]

Haha, 1692 all over again.

[rowdytexan2]

Too many people I know that got the flu and pneumonia shots are sicker than dogs as we speak.

The last time I took a flu shot, I ached for a month after. Doc said impossible! But he couldn''t explain why I was achy and felt terrible.

Why take something that is likely to make you sick anyway? This is pharmaceutical claptrap. They''re making millions.

If you get flu symptoms, that''s the time to go get treatment.

[jetranger7]

WELL IF THIS DRUG IS MAKING PEOPLE ACT STRANGE, THE ENTIRE WHITE HOUSE STAFF MUST BE TAKING IT !!!!

[baptox]

I agree with kaylaGo4...If you want to experience what life was like before vaccines were available, visit an old cemetery and look at family graves prior to and just after the turn of the last century.

It was not uncommon for entire families to be wiped out by an epidemic of flu, or TB, or many other communicable diseases for which we now have some protection.

Another way to experience how fortunate we are in the West, in regards to preventive healthcare, is to visit a poor country in which vaccinations are a luxury and in which a good number of women and children die in childbirth.

[alphaa10-2009]

republic1776 said, "FEMA''''s purpose is to matain Government Control. Unlike what most socialist and Democrats think... They are not the Red Cross."
---
In recent years, it has become clear even the Red Cross is not the Red Cross.

But you are the government in a democracy. And this has nothing to do with whether you think, or do not think so.

[alphaa10-2009]

KaylaG04 said, "Are there a heck of a lot of folks around to complain today, that wouldn''''t be without evil pharmaceutical companies and private medical research? For sure."
---
Study the complaints about pharmaceutics, and you quickly will surmise where the evil lies. Evil is not in the science pharmaceuticals exploit, but the entirely unnecessary human corruption attending any market monopoly where power incites greed.

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

For sure.

[alphaa10-2009]

ttinsly said, "There are herbal medicines out there that have been proven to work as well or better than other strong chemicals that make profits from their sales while adding on strong side effects...''
---
The pharmaceutical industry "sponsored" a study on echinacea which turned out not to favor the herb so strongly as other studies had suggested. Only later was it revealed the industry study failed to extract properly the phytochemical compounds under study.

In addition, the study''s statistical method still left echinacea "almost" significant-- meaning the study numbers easily could have gone the other way, had the plant compound been rendered at full strength. Apparently, Big Pharma still has much to learn from herbal medicine.

Herbs are the oldest drugs, and have the greatest mass of field trial data on record, with an increasing proportion of modern experimental findings. In a subtle bow to herbs'' preeminence in medicine through history, the major pharmaceuticals still scour the earth for promising leads to plant compounds to be synthesized, renamed and marketed.

This approach offers benefits when drug companies learn from nature. But the ultimate ambition of Big Pharma is to "improve" on nature. That direction involves both the lab and legions of paying guinea pigs, sometimes called patients, who use approved experimental compounds literally at their own risk. That is why the quality and integrity of FDA administration is so much at issue.