Canada says warnings needed on bird flu drug Tamiflu

Dec 1 2006

Canadian health authority Health Canada has requested that the manufacturer of the antiviral drug Tamiflu place warnings on it's labels of adverse effects.

Health Canada wants the Swiss pharma group Roche to place warnings of side-effects such as abnormal behaviour, including self-harm, on the drugs packaging.

According to Health Canada up to November 11th there have been 84 reports of patients having adverse effects when using Tamiflu and ten of those cases died, though no causal link has been established as yet.

Health Canada has said there have been 'international reports of hallucinations and abnormal behaviour, including self harm, in patients taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu'.

Health Canada says while the connection with the drug in these cases has not yet been proven, high fever or other complications of influenza can affect mental state, which in turn can lead to abnormal behaviour, and it will continue to monitor the safety of the drug.

The EU's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recently said there was no evidence to suggest a causal relation between the drug and mental or emotional disorders and that Tamiflu was not a health risk.

But concern over the drug's safety first occurred in the U.S. last October when it was claimed Tamiflu caused such symptoms, in particular in children.

Roche has issued a statement rejecting recent claims that the H5N1 bird flu virus was showing increased resistance to Tamiflu in some patients infected with it.