A UK toddler is receiving a unique treatment that requires Viagra crushed into his food four times a day to control pulmonary hypertension (PH), a rare condition that causes chronic high blood pressure.
The Viagra improves blood flow, which boosts erectile function in adults, but also helps open the veins and capillaries to aid circulation in rare cases such as two year old Oliver Sherwood’s.
The young boy’s parents are worried that the treatment may face an uncertain future because of proposed cuts by the Government’s drug rationing body agency.
As he grows up he will need to switch to more expensive treatments to control his condition – which may not be available if the cuts go ahead.
His mom, Sarah Sherwood, 34, has now launched a petition to keep funding for more expensive pulmonary hypertension (PH) treatments on the NHS.
The mother-of-two, a part-time nurse from Hucclecote, Gloucester, said: “The dose isn’t high enough to have the effect it would on adults. Viagra is an expensive drug but it’s actually one of the cheapest to treat PH.
The condition, which affects just 4,000 people in the UK, can often lead to heart failure and damages the heart and lungs. It is so rare that only five children a year are diagnosed with it in the UK and sufferers are often misdiagnosed with asthma.
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