Hello everyone, my name is ” Ji Lianmei Pharmacist”, I am very helpless to see this Weibo.
Since 2012, I have been constantly popularizing the dangers of this drug to women of childbearing age, on Weibo, WeChat, newspapers, TV…
However, it continues to be abused every day.
The following story has the consent of the patients who are attending the clinic. I hope everyone who sees this article will share it with the women of childbearing age around you, reminding them to stay away from ribavirin to avoid similar encounters.
After seeing a patient in the morning, I was not very happy all day, not because of the patient’s anger, but because of the patient’s suffering.
Patients:
A 33-year-old female patient with irregular menstrual cycles: 30-40 days, last menstrual period 42 days ago (January 10), 11 days ago (February 21) Japan) was diagnosed with pregnancy.
It was a happy event, but worries followed because the patient was taking medication without knowing she was pregnant.
In the ten days from February 2nd to 12th, just because of nasal congestion and runny nose, I was diagnosed with a cold. injection.
Are these medicines safe for the fetus?
Will it cause deformities?
Can I keep this baby?
With these questions and some drug inserts and packaging, the patient made an appointment for my consultation.
In the office, I assess the possible effects of each drug on a case-by-case basis based on the patient’s gestational age, drug type and dose, and drug-related metabolism and clearance information.
When I analyzed ribavirin injection, I was helpless.
The patient was injected with ribavirin on two consecutive days on February 11-12.
And this drug has been proven to be teratogenic in clinical practice. It takes a long time for its metabolism and clearance in the body, which is just the teratogenic sensitivity of the developing fetus in her womb Expect!
I can’t make the decision for her to keep this baby, but it’s a frustrating announcement to have to tell her that the risk of teratogenicity is high.
What frustrates me even more is that I have done science for five years, and I have also taught for five years not to use this drug for women of childbearing age.
It doesn’t seem to work at all, and people continue to find out that they are pregnant after using this medicine and have to abort the pregnancy.
Ribavirin is commonly known as “ribavirin”, and because of the word “virus” in the name, most Chinese people are taken into the ditch.
It even includes medical staff, thinking that it works on any virus, so they abuse this drug to treat diseases caused by various viral infections.
Abusing it to treat colds is the most common. There are various dosage forms of tablets, granules, dispersible tablets, aerosols, and oral liquids. A random search on the Internet can show a bunch of them.
People can buy it in pharmacies and use it to treat colds, but the truth is it:
No cold!
No cold!
Deathtake!
Speak important things three times.
In the United States, this drug is only available in nebulized and oral forms.
Among them, the aerosol formulation has only been approved by the FDA for the treatment of severe lower respiratory tract infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus, especially infections in premature infants and hospitalized patients with underlying lung diseases.
The oral dosage form has only been approved by the FDA for use in combination with interferon to treat chronic hepatitis C, not alone.
FDA has a serious warning about the regulation of this drug, requiring pharmaceutical companies to mark it in bold black on the front page of the drug insert, the first of which is:
Teratogenic to fetus! Even exposure to as low as 1% of the therapeutic dose has produced a significant potential for fetal malformation.
Therefore, women of childbearing age and their sexual partners should avoid pregnancy within 6 months of using this medicine and use at least two reliable forms of birth control (such as oral contraceptives + condoms).
Pregnant healthcare professionals should also avoid nebulizing ribavirin for patients.
When working in a US pharmacy, when women of childbearing age come to pick up this medicine, we ask them to show proof that they are not pregnant before they can take it, which means Use a pregnancy test to prove that you are not pregnant yet.
On the other hand, in China, there is no strict supervision on this drug, and it is widely abused to treat colds, so that women of childbearing age continue to step on the minefield without knowing it, causing regret.
The author of this article—
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Let’s protect yourself and your family’s medication safety together!
