GMTV presenter Andrew Castle, pictured above with his wife, has revealed his 16-year-old daughter "almost died" after taking Tamiflu after being suspected of suffering swine flu.

Former tennis player Andrew was talking to Health Secretary Andy Burnham this morning when he made the alarming revelation.

It comes as calls grow to stop children taking the anti-viral drug because of potentially dangerous side-effects.  

Oxford researchers yesterday released a report saying the drug was too strong for kids and could do them more harm than good.

Andrew confronted the minister, saying: "I’ve got a personal example of this in my family. We saw a respiratory collapse through it and it almost cost my elder child her life. Nobody checked that she had swine flu beforehand.

"The Health Protection Agency just handed out - it was Alleyn’s School in South London - they just handed this Tamiflu out. And we suffered, Georgina suffered, and a lot of kids suffered in the school very heavily."

Andrew then demanded to know his daughter had been given the drug in the first place.

Andy Burnham replied: "Well, can I come back to that situation in a moment -  just let me make a general comment Andrew about the research yesterday.

"And the most important thing for me to say is that the research deals with seasonal flu, not swine flu, and that’s a very important distinction that the Chief Medical Officer drew yesterday.

"And swine flu is a new virus - it’s early days and we’re adopting a very much, ‘a safety first’ approach to tackling the illness. What we do know about swine flu is that it does disproportionately affect young people and children. And the Chief Medical Officer says Tamiflu is our only main line of defence against this new virus right now. So our advice has not changed at all."

Andrew countered: "But if that’s the case Andy, then why was Tamiflu thrown at everybody and why is Tamiflu still being given out over the phone without any clinical advice whatsoever? People are ticking boxes in call centres and sending them out according to symptoms they’re hearing on the phone."

Andy replied: " Well I said I’d come back to you, to the particular situation. Obviously it must have been a very worrying situation for you, but that was in very different phase of the illness when we were seeing the scenes from Mexico and we were in what we called ‘the containment phase’  where we were trying to isolate every case and give Tamiflu to those around those cases.

"So that was a very different phase of the outbreak. With regards to the service now, I mean the online service - we’re still saying to people if they’re worried, they should go to their GP and get advice in the normal way."

But Andrew hit back: "GPs don’t want to accept people who may have the symptoms of swine flu."

Andy still refused to admit there was a problem and answered: "Well, we’ve got the online service which is there to relieve pressure on GPs and take people through the diagnosis. And all of the steps on line have been carefully, the questions have been carefully drawn by doctors so that people can make a diagnosis.

"And obviously people shouldn’t take Tamiflu unless they have got swine flu and are clear that they have actually got the symptoms of swine flu. But my message this morning would be to parents - they shouldn’t be worried if their child is taking Tamiflu for swine flu - that should carry on."

Andrew remained unconvinced by that however.

He said: "I’m sure that’s the message Andy, but I can tell you that my child who wasn’t diagnosed at all, she was just given Tamiflu. She had asthma, she was showing flu-like symptoms, she took Tamiflu and almost died. Now you see, that’s just a personal example. The doctor’s surgery wouldn’t take her.

"The doctor said ‘No you can’t take her to A&E’ - so she’s on the floor having this nightmare of a situation. And a lot of people are in this position - they don’t know what to do. Do you call somebody up at a call centre who just ticks boxes and then sends you out Tamiflu? What are parents to do when their kids show the symptoms? Call someone, take Tamiflu?"

Andy replied: "Obviously, I listen very carefully to the experts at the Department of Health, to the Chief Medical Officer. And the Chief Medical Officer repeated yesterday that our advice is unchanged and that Tamiflu is our best line of defence against what is a new virus that, while is mild in the vast majority of people, can be more serious in a small number of cases, and we’ve seen and heard about those cases.

"So we’ve got to keep things in proportion and people shouldn’t worry unnecessarily. Obviously we do keep matters under review as we go along. But we’re in the early stages of the outbreak of a new virus, and it’s right in my view to take a ‘safety first approach’ in those circumstances."