Teen fights for life after reaction to swine flu drug (From Bicester Advertiser)

Teen fights for life after reaction to swine flu drug

7:00am Thursday 10th December 2009

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A TEENAGER is intensive care and fighting for her life after taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu.

Samantha Millard, of Purslane Drive, Bicester, has blisters all over her body and severe breathing difficulties after being prescribed the medication.

Last night the 18-year-old was in a critical condition and being treated in the specialist burns unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after being transferred from Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.

Doctors fear she may have the life-threatening Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which causes the skin to peel off.

Her mother Deborah, 41, took a picture of Samantha 48 hours after she had taken just three Tamiflu pills.

Last night she was keeping a bed-side vigil, along with Samantha’s half-sister Charley Dale, 23.

Speaking from the family home, her stepfather Bart van Horenbeeck said everyone was “extremely worried” about Samantha.

He told the Oxford Mail: “She is still in intensive care, and we are all very concerned. It all happened so quickly. On Wednesday, she had flu-like symptoms, and did what she was meant to and called the swine flu hotline. Operators prescribed her with Tamiflu.

“The next day she started suffering from a severe reaction and by Friday she was in the Churchill Hospital.”

Samantha had phoned her GP in Bicester, but was directed to the hotline set up to deal with the thousands of people expected to contract the condition.

Stevens-Johnson affects about three in a million people and is most normally triggered by a bad reaction to medication. Around 15 per cent of sufferers die from the condition. One of the most severe symptoms is scarring all over the body. Victims can also develop conjunctivitis – leading to blindness in some cases – and mouth infections.

Samantha is a student at Bicester Community College, where she achieved a Health and Social Care BTEC level two certificate this year.

Headteacher Cynthia Bartlett said: “We are very sorry to hear of Sam’s illness. Sam is a good student who is keen to contribute to the community and we are all thinking of her at this difficult time.”

NHS Oxfordshire spokes-woman Ruth Atkins urged people not to worry about Tamiflu.She said: “We cannot comment on individual cases. However, we would like to reassure people that serious reactions to Tamiflu are extremely rare and it should still be taken as soon as possible, especially for very serious swine flu cases.”

Samantha’s case comes as the effectiveness of Tamiflu was being questioned amid disarray over plans to inoculate three million children against the bug.

Research published in the British Medical Journal found the antiviral could cut symptoms by about a day, but said there was no clear evidence that it prevented complications like pneumonia.

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