Antiviral treatments such as Tamiflu should not be administered to children under the age of 12 because the risks of the drugs outweigh the possible benefits in lessening symptoms of swine flu, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Although antiviral drugs can shorten the duration of the flu in children by an average of 1.5 days, they fail to fight certain effects of the infection, having little effect on the risk of asthma flare-ups, for instance. In fact, the drugs can bring dangerous side effects like vomiting, which can be dangerous because it puts children at risk of dehydration. In the research review, scientists
looked at four trials of 1,766 children treated with antivirals, including 1,243 with confirmed flu, and three trials of 863 who were exposed to flu but didn't exhibit symptoms and were treated with antivirals preventively. Only one trial looked at children with ...
