European officials check Tamiflu safety

LONDON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- European medical authorities are making a safety check on Tamiflu following the deaths of two Japanese teens after taking the anti-flu drug.

The deaths have raised safety fears about the only treatment against a threatened pandemic of avian flu, the Independent said. The deaths are not linked and occurred a year apart.

The Japanese health ministry issued a warning in June 2004 about psychological and neurological disorders linked with Tamiflu, with an instruction that doctors should be alerted. But no similar warning was issued in Europe and the Britain.

Tamiflu is made by the Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Roche.