What is happening to the popular pain reliever drug Nolotil (metamizole)? Five years ago I told the story of the medical translator Cristina Garcia del Campo. A patient for whom I translated at the Denia Hospital he suffered sepsis that ended his life. Now there is news again.
After knowing that event Garcia del Campo he began to investigate. The high number of sepsis that he saw in the patients he translated and dedicated himself to inquire into medical records of those who could.
They all had something in common: they had been treated his pain with Nolotil.
From there, García contacted the heads of the hospitals where he worked to inform them that there could be a public health problem.
I knew -it is public- that metamizole is not authorized in United Kingdom.
Now he has documented more than 350 and, although they are mostly British, he also knows many cases of Spaniards. In most there are medical reports that explain that these cases have happened due to metamizole-associated agranulocytosis.
He british newspaper The Times published the story and shortly after a alert from the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Amps).
This institution reviewed the situation in Spain of the drug on the occasion of the notification to the Spanish Pharmacovigilance System of cases of agranulocitosis (process of death of white blood cells in the immune system with the consequent loss of efficacy to fight infections), particularly in patients of British origin.
The appearance of agranulocytosis or neutropenia is known and is a serious reaction that can lead to the patient death. It is considered an immune type reaction.
The information on the cases notified in Spain indicates that their number has increased in recent years in parallel with the increased consumption of this analgesic. In fact, it is one of the most consumed drugs in Spain.
It is not known to what extent the problem is widespread and its seriousness given that, as the Medicines Agency:
It is likely that there is an important underreporting as it is a known adverse reaction. The data also confirm the increased risk in elderly patients, something already known.
Although this adverse reaction It can appear at any time during treatment, in more than half of the reported cases for which information is available, the duration of the treatment was greater than one week”.
The manufacturer of the Nolotil is the laboratory Boheringer.
Underreporting of harm caused by medicines masks the real security of the drugs. I still know reports a very low percentage of these adverse reactions.
The use of metamizole in Spain, based on prescription data charged to prescriptions from the National Health System, has been doubled in the last ten yearsbeing the most pronounced increase in recent years.
Although a greater susceptibility to agranulocytosis in the northern European population has been discussed for years and certain genetic factors have been studied, with the available information a greater risk in populations with specific ethnic characteristics cannot be ruled out or confirmed.
The thing is that in spain prescribing has been prohibited (we must insist that it is a prescription treatment) to British tourists.
It must also be remembered that before taking it, the results of a previous blood test should be available to avoid its use in people with risk factors for agranulocytosis. When a few years ago I fell off my bike and went to emergencies they didn’t do it to me…
I wonder how many old men and women die from infections in hospitals and nursing homes while they are taking the medicine of the boheringer laboratory.
When I published about it, I explained that if there are so many cases of reported deaths and it is consumed so much and there is underreporting of its adverse reactions and it is offered without a prescription (in Spanish pharmacies “they skip the bullfighter” -according to the aforementioned translator- the ban on selling Nolotil without a prescriptionregardless of whether it is to tourists or not), it would not be strange if there were a “ghost epidemic” of deaths and serious damage in our country for this cause.
And so it is. The problem is that the work of the Medicines Agency It left a lot to be desired, for a change.
and the cases of serious damage They have continued to appear.
Despite being informed, said institution supposedly in charge of ensuring our healthis not doing anything about it or telling what is happening and I think people have a right to know.
In it Buffet Almodóvar & Jara We are already investigating it. If you or a family member or acquaintance has suffered damage Contact us to review your case.
It’s very important report suspected adverse reactions through the corresponding Autonomous Center for Pharmacovigilance, and may also notify through this electronic form.