‘Tamiflu not effective’

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    CLARK FREEPORT – A website being accessed by a growing number of people worldwide has cited European experts, at the height of the avian flu scare a few years ago, as having found the medicine Tamiflu “useless against the avian flu and many other flus.”

    It also cited published reports of fatal side effects of the drug being recommended by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) in cases of swine flu or H1N1 virus.

    The website www.WantToKnow.info also noted that in 2003, Vietnamese Dr. Nguyen Tuong Van who had treated 41 victims of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) under World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, also concluded that Tamiflu had no effect on her patients.

    A check with the website of the World Health Organization (WHO) would reveal it had certified that a laboratory called the Central Institute for Epidemiology in Hanoi, Vietnam meets conditions for testing for H1N1 flu.

    The laboratory was set up in 2003 after SARS was first recognized on Feb. 23 in the same year in Hanoi. So far, however, no case of the new H1N1 has been reported in Vietnam.

    The CDC website says it “recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses.”

    Apparently taking its cue from the CDC, the Philippine government has also stocked up on Tamiflu.

    “Oseltamivir is Tamiflu, the same drug recommended for the avian flu only a few years ago,” WantToKnow.com noted.

    WantToKnow.com cited publications to back up its allegations on Tamiflu.

    It noted that “at the height of the avian flu scare, European researchers conducted a review of numerous studies of anti-viral medications, which was then published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet on Jan. 19, 2006.”

    “According to this review of 51 randomized controlled trials, Tamiflu was useless against the avian flu and many other flus. As reported in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, the study’s authors found no ‘credible evidence’ that Tamiflu works against avian flu,” it said.

    It stressed that “contrary to the CDC, their recommendation was not to use Tamiflu.”

    WantToKnow.info also said that “using the avian flu again as a point of reference and caution, CBS and Associated Press reported on Dec. 12, 2005 that some avian flu victims died after developing resistance to Tamiflu.”

    “In a development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients in Vietnam died after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that governments are stockpiling in case of a large-scale outbreak. The experts said the deaths were disturbing because the two girls had received early and aggressive treatment with Tamiflu and had gotten the recommended doses,” the website quoted CBS and AP reports.

    The website also quoted Australia’s respected Sydney Morning Herald on March 1, 2007 as reporting “18 juvenile fatalities linked to side effects of Tamiflu in 17 months.”

    Indeed the Tamiflu website www.tamiflu.com says that “people with the flu, particularly children and adolescents, may be at an increased risk of self injury and confusion shortly after taking Tamiflu and should be closely monitored for signs of unusual behavior.”

    The WantToKnow.com  calls itself a “reliable, verifiable, information on major cover ups and a call to work together for the good of all.”

    The website’s researchers include Emmy award-winning journalist Kristina Borjesson, website manager Fred Burks, Prof. Norma Carr-Ruffino, Dr. Steven Greer, Dr. David Ray Griffin, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, author Michael Levine, researcher Peter Lindemann, Dr. Pamela Monday, Dr. Peter Phillips, author Carol Rutz Dr. Peter Dale Scott authoer Paul Thompson and intelligence expert Charles Viar.

    “Roche, the company that makes Tamiflu, has sold stockpiles of the drug to 40 countries and insists there is clear evidence it will protect against a future flu virus. However, it stresses the drug must be given within 48 hours to be effective. The WHO admitted Tamiflu had not been widely successful in humans,” their website also noted.

    The website asked: “How could the CDC be so confident in its recommendation without significant research? How can health officials claim Tamiflu is effective with any certainty now, when the current rash of swine flu cases were discovered such a short time ago?”

    “As a result of all the fear built up around the avian flu a few years ago, stock prices for Roche and Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical company which developed Tamiflu, soared when the drug was recommended by the government as the best treatment. And few know that Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of the board of directors of Gilead from 1997 until 2001, when he was appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense,” the website further noted.

    It also noted that Tamiflu “was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences” and that “Mr. Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman up to 1997.”

    “The massive stockpiles of Tamiflu built up by governments around the world to combat the impending avian flu pandemic were never needed,” it said.

    The website also claimed that “the pandemic never came close to happening”, as it cited a report of the WHO on April 23, 2009 that the total number of confirmed deaths worldwide due to avian flu since 2003 was 257.

    “For comparison, the CDC estimates that (ordinary) influenza alone causes over 36,000 deaths every year in the United States. Yet look at all the profits generated by the massive amount of fear spread through the media for the pandemic that never happened,” it said.


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