Tamiflu Taste Not Enticing For Kids

Tamiflu the drug that is expected to be at the forefront of the battle to beat the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus tastes disgusting. This should not really be a problem for any adult who is concerned about getting well and beating bird flu. An adult can easily see the advantages of putting up with the bad taste for a minute or two in return for a fighting chance to beat the potentially fatal flu. However the problem really occurs when the drug needs to be given to children as it is notoriously impossible to convince children to put something in their mouth that tastes bad.

The concerns were being addressed by the International Association of Medicinal Compliance which studies among other things the effectiveness of giving children medicines that don't good. An American Academy of Pediatrics research program also noted that when children were administered foul tasting medicines that the rate of non compliance was as much as half.

Tamiflu is particularily foul tasting and therefore in the height of a pandemic could cause many problems for the people that administered it if children were going to be reluctant to take it. The IAMC advised that the drug which comes in a liquid form should be flavoured to disguise the bad taste and make it attractive to children otherwise a large number of children would not get the life saving medicine.

The IAMC has even met with a company that manufacturers flavorings for all types of medication and is advising the US givernment to have stocks of the flavouring ready alongside the Tamiflu drug. An expert on drug flavouring said that Tamiflu was one of the worst tasting drugs on the market and that children were especially sensitive to taste compared to adults and it was essential to help them to take the medicine.

Much time could be wasted trying to convince children to take the medicine if a pandemic broke out and if large amounts of children needed to be administered to there could be dangerous and serious problems.