NEWS: Alert issued over baby cold syrups

from DAILY MONITOR ONLINE

Alert issued over baby cold syrups

Parents will have to wait for an on-going investigation by the National Drug Authority to determine whether they should continue giving their children syrups that other countries have discouraged or banned.

A spokesman for the NDA told Daily Monitor yesterday that an investigation had been launched after doctors in the United States and in neighbouring Kenya raised questions about the safety and efficacy of 20 syrups.

“The moment we learnt of this development in Kenya, we embarked on investigations because most of these products are already on our market,” said Mr Fred Ssekyana.

“We have also received a notification from the World Health Organisation regarding the matter and when done with the investigations, we shall report back to the public. We are assessing whether these drugs pose any danger to the users.”

Mr Ssekyana said the NDA cannot withdraw the medicines from the market without evidence. The hospitals in Kenya, Ssekyana added, could have acted at institutional level because this happens everywhere. Twelve of the blacklisted syrups are registered by the NDA and are in circulation in Uganda.

Efforts to get comment from the WHO Country office in Kampala were futile by press time. However, in 2007 the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned parents not to use the treatments in infants, after the deaths of three babies were linked to the toxic effects of cough and cold medicines.

A CDC study showed that more than 1,500 toddlers and babies wound up in emergency rooms between 2004 and 2005. Subsequently, the CDC warned parents not to give common over-the-counter cold remedies to children under 2 years old without consulting a doctor.

Mr Ssekyana, however, said although NDA has not received any complaints regarding the said syrups yet, it could be that parents are ignorant of the problems that the said medicines might be having, if any.

“Users of medical products should always consult their health workers or report any effects to NDA,” Mr Ssekyana said.

Several of the drugs are in circulation in Uganda and are popular because parents find it easy to administer the syrups to children instead of tablets.

Ms Aida Nalubega is a parent whose child was recently given one of the listed syrups to treat a cough without much success.

“My daughter was given the syrup to be administered over a five day period but there was no change. When I returned the child to the clinic, the same medication was given for another 5 days but still it failed to work.

Up to now the child has cough,” Ms Nalubega said in an interview. Ms Nalubega says she is thinking of resorting to traditional ways of relieving cough like the use of honey and lemon, as medical authorities in Kenya have advised parents.

The Aga Khan University Hospital is among the top health facilities in Kenya that have raised the red flag and stopped stocking up to 20 types of syrups.

The hospital said in a circular that they based the decision on a recent world wide medical professional’s opinion that the listed medicines are neither safe nor effective as previously believed.

The move has since prompted the Kenyan authorities to act saying the said syrups cannot be used in children below two years.

Yesterday, in a statement published in the Daily Nation newspaper, the Chairperson of the Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board, however, said the reported syrups were neither being recalled, withdrawn nor banned from the market for lack of sufficient evidence.

Dr Francis Kimani, however added that “for children below 6 years, it [syrup] is not recommended but can only be used under prescription only.”