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Centers for Disease Control overturn ruling on flu victim

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday overturned its decision regarding urgent medical treatment for a 10-year-old boy suffering from A(H1N1) influenza whose medical condition makes the usual drugs — Tamiflu or Relenza — unsuitable for treating him.

The boy, who is hospitalized at National Taiwan University Hospital, has been diagnosed with swine flu, but he is also suffering from multiple organ failure and internal bleeding.

As of press time yesterday, he was on a medical ventilator and in critical condition.

Doctors say Tamiflu or Relenza, the medicines most often used on swine flu patients, would be unsuitable for him.

Huang Li-min (黃立民), a physician from the hospital’s Department of Pediatrics, said he believed that the Department of Health (DOH) possess 40 doses of Peramivir, which is used in the treatment of patients who are not able to safely take Tamiflu or Relenza.

Huang said that as Peramivir had been approved for use in the US, it could be considered as an alternative medicine for swine flu patients in Taiwan as well.

Huang said the boy’s multiple organ failure was a symptom of A(H1N1) but that the internal bleeding was a pre-existing condition he could not discuss because of patient confidentiality.

However, CDC spokesman Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said that “as human trials for this drug are ongoing, we cannot be 100 percent sure about its safety.”

“The sick boy is relatively stable at present so we decided not to approve the request for the drug at the moment,” the spokesman said.

The CDC had initially said it would approve the drug so doctors could use it to treat the boy.

Huang said he had discussed the matter with CDC officials and agreed that because the boy’s medical condition wasn’t worsening, it would be better to hold up using the new medicine, for which human experiments have yet to be approved by the health department.
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