GMTV’s Andrew Castle: my daughter nearly died taking Tamiflu

Georgina, 16, suffered an asthma attack a day after being given a double dose of the antiviral.

Castle said: "She was lying on our floor going grey. This was a very worrying situation. She couldn't breathe."

Georgina was given Tamiflu after a swine flu outbreak at Alleyne's school in Dulwich in May. Tests later revealed that she did not have the virus.

At that time pupils were being given the antiviral as a precaution even when they did not have swine flu.

Castle confronted Health Secretary Andy Burnham during an interview on today's GMTV, following research which cast doubt on the benefits of the anti-viral drug. He said: "I can tell you that my child — who was not diagnosed at all — she had asthma, she took Tamiflu and almost died."

Speaking to Castle, Mr Burnham said: "It must have been a very worrying situation for you, but that was in a very different phase of the illness when we were seeing the scenes from Mexico and we were in what we call the containment phase, where we were trying to isolate every case.

"We've got to keep things in proportion People shouldn't take Tamiflu unless they have got swine flu."

He added: "Tamiflu is our only, our main line of defence right now."

Speaking to the Standard, Castle said: "Because the health secretary was there I thought I would ask him about it. The purpose was not to attack him, but I have had experience of this."

He added: "Georgina had flu-like symptoms so they gave her a double dose of Tamiflu. But the next day she completely went south healthwise. She was in a terrible way." He said they could not get a GP to see his daughter so called an ambulance.

He added: "She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting and spent three days with oxygen and was put in isolation We made the connection with Tamiflu very quickly.

"We have had emails saying people taking Tamiflu have experienced vomiting and diarrhoea, and parents at Georgina's school have reported cases of depression."

About 300,000 people in England have had courses of Tamiflu. But yesterday, Oxford University researchers said children should not be given the drug.

The side-effects

* More than 400 reports of Tamiflu side-effects have been received since the start of the swine flu outbreak.

* The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is collecting data on the problems, including headaches.

* In children, the most commonly reported side-effects are vomiting (15 per cent) and diarrhoea (10 per cent). Five per cent of children report abdominal pain.