Dr Susan Turnbull

JERSEY children will continue to be treated with anti-swine flu drugs, despite concerns over the effects that they have on youngsters.

The Health Department have today reassured parents after research, published on the British Medical Journal website, questioned the policy of giving Tamiflu and Relenza to children and raised concerns over their side-effects.

Dr Susan Turnbull, Jersey’s deputy Medical Officer of Health, today said that she had so much confidence in the drugs she would treat her own children with them if they were struck down by swine flu.

Although researchers did not conduct tests in relation to the current pandemic, they said that anti-viral drugs were unlikely to help children who catch the H1N1 virus. They also warned that children could suffer side-effects, including vomiting and nausea, and that the potential risks involved in taking the drugs outweighed the potential benefits.

But Jersey’s deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr Susan Turnbull, said that the research did not raise any new health concerns and added that the department would continue to treat children with the drugs.