Socio-Economics History Blog

Socio-Economics History Blog

Neurotoxic Flu Drug Approved for Use on Infants!

by mosesman

Doctor-Money-Bribe-Pocket

  • Neurotoxic Flu Drug Approved for Use on Infants! 
    by , http://naturalsociety.com/ 
    Tamiflu, the antiviral drug facing international criticism for its deadly  side effects, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use  on infants just two weeks old.
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    The FDA’s decision  comes amidst international  controversy over Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir.  Since the drug’s approval in 1999, several suicide  deaths and incidents of bizarre side effects have been recorded. In the UK,  where use of Tamiflu was relatively low at the time of publication of a 2005  article, only 41 “yellow card” reports of adverse reactions were recorded,  just one being agitation and two being “confusional states.”
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    In Japan, however, close to the cries of a then-imminent avian flu pandemic,  54 people with no previous discernible psychiatric or health complications were  dead after taking Tamiflu in 2005.
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    Tamiflu-maker, Roche Holding AG, responded chillingly. “These events are  extremely rare in relation to the number of patients treated.”
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    Haruhiko Nokiba, whose a 17-year old victim who committed suicide in 2004  after taking Tamiflu, says, “Had they issued a warning earlier, then the number  of deaths could have been halved.”
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    FDA Following the Money
    A warning label about such bizarre psychiatric side effects—like the one the  Japanese pharmaceutical company Chugai slapped onto Tamiflu in 2004—might have  affected Roche’s sales, which is where the FDA’s priority seems to be. This is,  of course, conjecture—like the kind the FDA used when approving Tamiflu for use  on infants under a year old.
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    Because of the unlikelihood that any parents would subject an infant to  controlled, randomized, placebo-controlled trials of a drug associated with  psychiatric distress, the FDA made their approval decision based on conjecture from studies involving older children and adults.
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    Existing Data Encourages Caution
    What this conjecture fails to take into consideration, however, is an  infant’s significantly greater vulnerability to drugs. Their lesser developed  blood-brain barriers and detoxification mechanisms make them less capable as  adults of keeping chemicals out of their developing brains and bodies.
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    As a neuraminidase inhibitor, Tamiflu blocks the principle enzyme in a flu  virus that allows it to enter through the membrane of the host cell. Because  mammals have four variations (that we know of so far) of neuraminidase enzymes,  known as sialidase homologs, a drug like  Tamiflu that targets these neuraminidases is likely very imprecise. These  enzymes are crucial for neurological health, so “cross reactivity” associated  with Tamiflu may be to blame for many things, like an increased  risk of birth defects in offspring of pregnant women given Tamiflu.
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    In fact, existing data rather than conjecture should have turned the FDA away  from this approval. According to a study published in The Pediatric  Infectious Disease Journal, the majority (54 percent) of evaluable infants  treated with Tamiflu experienced complications. “The most serious of [these  complications] were meningitis in 1 infant (1 percent), pneumonia in 9 (6  percent), and [ear infection] in 2 (1 percent).”
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    Another study, published in the International Journal of Vaccine Risk and  Safety in Medicine, tracked down 119 reports of Tamiflu-induced death, 38  of which were of sudden deterioration within 12 hours of prescription. “These  findings are consistent with sudden deaths observed in a series of animal  toxicity studies, several reported case series and the results of prospective  cohort studies.”
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    The FDA Doesn’t Care About You
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    read more!

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