Word: influenza
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...children under the age of 5, almost all from the developing world, die from diseases that could be easily prevented with a vaccine. For most of us, those needless deaths prick our consciences and motivate us to open our wallets, but they don't threaten our own health. Avian influenza is different. Though the H5N1 virus is spreading and killing mainly in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, the possibility that bird flu could mutate and become a pandemic is a serious threat to us all. That's why Jakarta's fight with the World Health Organization (WHO) over how an avian...
...What they have in common is that each victim took the influenza antiviral Tamiflu shortly before they died. According to the Japanese Health Ministry, 54 people have died after taking Tamiflu - the drug governments around the world have stockpiled for use against avian flu - since the drug was approved for use in Japan in 2000. Most suspiciously, in multiple cases people, including those cases above, acted erratically after taking Tamiflu. Though the Health Ministry has said there is no clear evidence linking Tamiflu to the deaths, there is growing concern among doctors and parents in Japan over the drug...
...according to the Japanese Health Ministry - and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the side effects that Hama has seen are more likely caused by influenza itself. In rare juvenile cases influenza can cause brain inflammation - encephalitis - that can lead to neuropsychiatric events. In fact, it was in Japan in the mid-1990s that pediatricians first began reporting such cases, which led to intense nationwide surveillance of pediatric influenza...
...That hypothesis was bolstered by a Ministry of Health study last year that investigated 2,800 influenza cases and found that virtually the same percentage of victims showed abnormal behavior whether or not they had taken Tamiflu. Still, the recent spate of suspicious deaths was enough for the ministry late last month to issue a general warning that influenza can cause psychiatric problems. For its part the FDA last autumn reviewed 103 cases of neuropsychiatric events associated with Tamiflu use - 95% of the cases came from Japan - and concluded that it could not conclude whether the events were...
...Tamiflu were only needed for normal, seasonal influenza, this debate wouldn't matter outside Japan. In most Western countries Tamiflu, which can speed up recovery from the flu by a day or so at most, has barely been used. It's only been in prescription drug-happy Japan, where the government effectively made Tamiflu free, that the drug became popular before bird flu made it a household word. But because Tamiflu has been one of the few drugs to show effectiveness against H5N1 avian flu, it has become the key pharmacological component in international pandemic preparation plans. If a pandemic...