KNH knocked syrups off its drug list 12 years ago

Health bosses secretly withdrew popular cough syrups as treatment for children aged two years, and Kenyatta National Hospital stopped prescribing them 12 years ago, the Nation has learnt.

The Ministry of Health, through the Acute Respiratory Infection Programme, in 1992 adopted a policy not to use any cough syrup in the treatment of children. As a result, KNH stopped prescribing them for children under 12.

Medical Services Permanent Secretary Kiyiapi said cough syrups were removed from the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency supplies chain two years ago. But it was not clear why this was not communicated to the public or new regulations for their use announced.

On Thursday, Dr Kiyiapi accused the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, charged with drug safety, of “sleeping on the job” and directed it to immediately order the withdrawal of the medicines. The United Kingdom banned the medicines on March 1.

In the meantime, the Government asked parents not to panic and that cough medicines are not poisonous but recommended that they are not to be used for children under the age of six. The pharmaceautical industry defended their products as safe and legal, but said they should be used after consulting a doctor.

And the Nairobi Hospital on Thursday joined the list of top hospitals in removing cough mixtures from their prescriptions for children.

Poisons board

Director of Medical Services Francis Kimani, reassuring the public, said the Poisons board was reviewing data on the medicines and would take “appropriate regulatory action” once this was done.

“I’m therefore directing the newly inaugurated board members to immediately act on this issue with,” Prof Kiyiapi told journalists at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi.

The withdrawal of the syrups, reported in the Nation on Thursday, drew sharp reactions from a cross-section of pharmacists who defended them and said they would continue selling them until they got formal notice from the regulator.

The pharmacists said there is no concrete evidence that the syrups are ineffective and could be harmful, as alleged by earlier research findings.

A visit to four dispensing chemists in Nairobi showed they have not withdrawn the cough syrups in question. Some of those brands include paediatric dosages of Actifed, Benilyn, Linctifed and Ascoril. Pentapharm and Thorn Tree however said they had not filled any prescriptions on the cough syrups.

Thorn Tree’s pharmacist, Mr James Kinyanjui, said that when the medicine is correctly prescribed, it benefits ailing children. “These syrups have always been used by patients and so long as the medicine is used as prescribed by the doctor, there are no side effects,” he said.

However, he cautioned that people should only use over the counter medicines with young children after consulting with a doctor who has examined the sick child. Therein lies the source of the debate here in Kenya: Most of the people who rely on these relatively affordable, easy to use medicines do so because they cannot afford medical advice.

Still, pharmacists are insisting on official clarification over which medicines were perceived ineffective or harmful since they have dispensed them for many years without any complaints of side effects.