H1N1: UKs BMJ Report Extreme Doubts over Tamiflu results

Research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has confirmed that the antiviral oseltamivir, is only effective in reducing by 1 day, the time people have symptoms. It also confirmed that there was no evidence that oseltamivir prevented the most fatal complications, pneumonia.

It comes after the Government and GPs failed to reach an agreement on the swine flu vaccination programme for under-fives, with health visitors and district nurses now set to be asked by local NHS managers to step in.

The BMJ research has questioned the validity of research from Roche, the pharmaceutical giant that makes Tamiflu.

More than a million courses of antivirals including Tamiflu have been given out to people across Britain since the start of the swine flu pandemic.

A review of 20 existing studies was carried out by a team led by experts from the Cochrane Collaboration, which last reviewed the evidence in 2005. Their updated study found Tamiflu "did not reduce influenza-related lower respiratory tract complications".

The drug was found to induce nausea while evidence of adverse reactions to the drug were "under-reported", they said.

Tamiflu was claimed to be effective in treating people preventatively, i.e. after they had come into contact with somebody who was infected, and shortened the length of symptoms in those with swine flu.

But the study criticised some of the evidence available and said Roche had not been able to "unconditionally" provide the information needed. As a result, the team dropped eight trials that were included in their earlier review because they were unable to independently verify the findings.

This leads to further speculation that the mass innoculation of peoples is commercially based, adding to the profits of the pharmaceutical companies, without there being sound medical evidence to back it up.

The power of the pharma lobbyists is such that this conspiracy to defraud the public has extended into the medical and political hierarchy and large incentives are being offered to executives, politicians and medical authorities that support the exploitation of this pandemic.

H1N1 Pandemic: Tamiflu proven ineffective

The National Health Board of Denmark has announced the first public declaration of pandemic H1N1 flu resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

They stress, though, that "there is no evidence" that the virus has spread, but further mutation is normal.

Although this case is said to be isolated, it throws further doubt on the doubtful and knee-jerk policy, introduced in most European countries, of giving low doses of Tamiflu to people in contact with infected people. Although, this is politically safe and very desirable and lucrative for the pharmaceutical companies, it is certainly not the correct strategy neither is it addressing the problems. It also allows the virus to mutate and develop resistant strains.

The Danish case, a contact of someone who caught swine flu abroad, was given Tamiflu as prophylaxis to prevent her getting sick, but she developed symptoms anyway. She was then given Relenza, another antiviral drug, and recovered but there is evidence that she would have recovered anyway.

The State Serum Institute in Copenhagen found that her virus carried a mutation giving further resistance to Tamiflu, and assumes (guessed) this emerged during treatment (contamination) rather than having been there already. Unfortunately, this guessing approach is not very scientific or clinical and is neither conclusive or acceptable as evidence based. There inability to prevent contamination is also worrying.

In defending the product and himself, David Reddy, head of the pandemic taskforce at Swiss company Roche, which produces Tamiflu says "Such a development is no surprise from a scientific point of view. Like antibiotics, antiviral drugs favour the survival of resistant strains."

Meaning, that Tamiflu has become even more ineffective against the resistant virus, than the original one, allegedly.