Tamiflu children suffer sickness and nightmares

Published on Friday 31 July 2009 00:27

MORE than half of children taking Tamiflu experience side effects such as nausea and nightmares, two studies show.

Data from children at three schools in London and one in south-west England showed many suffered such problems, including difficulty sleeping and feeling sick.

The researchers behind one study said that children may have attributed symptoms due to other illnesses to Tamiflu, but say: "This is unlikely to account for all the symptoms experienced."

The research published yesterday looked at side effects reported by pupils aged 11 and 12 in a secondary school year in south-west England.

The school was closed for ten days after a pupil was confirmed with swine flu after a holiday in Cancun, Mexico.

A total of 248 pupils took part in the study and were given Tamiflu as a prophylactic.

Compliance was high, with 77 per cent of children taking the full course, the researchers, including experts from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said.

But they went on: "Fifty-one per cent experienced symptoms such as feeling sick (31.2 per cent), headaches (24.3 per cent) and stomach ache (21.1 per cent)."

They said that some children had flu-like symptoms but did not have swine flu.

The researchers said "likely side effects were common" and the "burden of side effects needs to be considered" when deciding on giving Tamiflu to children prophylactically, especially given that swine flu symptoms are generally mild.

Another study, also by HPA experts, included 103 children. Of these, 85 took the drug prophylactically after a classmate was diagnosed with swine flu, and 45 experienced one or more side effect.

The most frequently reported side effect was nausea (29 per cent), followed by stomach pain or cramps (20 per cent) and problems sleeping (12 per cent).