Ignore social media post on antimalaria medicines — FDA

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has called on the public to disregard a post circulating on social media with a list of antimalarial drugs said to have been removed from the EU market purporting that they have been proven to be dangerous and cause kidney failure.

A statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mrs Delese A.A. Darko, and issued in Accra emphasised that Kidney disease was not an adverse effect linked with any of the medicines mentioned in the post and that the spontaneous monitoring had not picked kidney disease as a safety concern.

The authority assured Ghanaians that it has in place a robust system that monitors the safety of products that are used in the country.

Information false

It explained that Ghana’s decision to adopt combination therapy was not due to kidney failures as stated in the post but rather due to resistance leading to poor treatment outcomes.

According to the statement, malaria was very rare in Europe and, therefore, the list circulating on the social media could not be found in the European Medicine Agency as registered products for the European Union.

“The FDA wishes to inform the general public that the information is false and should be disregarded,” it said.

Monotherapies

The FDA further stated that antimalarial single active ingredient formulations (mono therapies) are not used in Ghana for the treatment of malaria, except oral quinine tablets and suspensions for complicated malaria and Artesunate suppositories. 

“Additionally, the FDA, as the National Pharmacovigilance Centre works closely with the National Malaria Control Programme, Health facilities and community pharmacies,” the statement explained.

It explained that the FDA periodically samples and performs analysis of antimalarial in its ISO accredited laboratory to ensure they are of the right quality.

Disregard information

“The general public is, therefore, advised to disregard the information and continue to use the artemisinin combination therapy as being administered under the National Malaria Control Programme,” the statement said.

The FDA further encouraged the general public to provide information on any activities that are likely to endanger public health and safety with respect to FDA’s mandate through any of the following numbers; TOLL FREE NUMBER 0800151000 (free only on Airtel and Vodafone), HOTLINES (0299802932/0299802933), and SMS SHORT CODE 4015 (all networks except Glo)