Patients who are victims of fluoroquinolones, a family of antibiotics with serious adverse effects, file a complaint and denounce a health scandal, reveals franceinfo.
Patients who are victims of fluoroquinolones, a family of antibiotics with serious adverse effects, file a complaint and denounce a health scandal, reveals this Monday franceinfo.
Fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics that can be used for serious bacterial infections. They are marketed under multiple names such as Oflocet, Ciflox or Tavanic. But they can be the cause of undesirable, irreversible or even fatal effects. According to a patient association, six million unjustified prescriptions have been made over the past four years. Patients whose health has seriously deteriorated are asking the courts to open a criminal investigation into the responsibility of the health authorities.
>> TESTIMONY. Health: a patient association denounces “six million poisonings in France in four years” by fluoroquinolones
In total, a dozen patients took legal action, in particular the Paris public health center and the Versailles prosecutor’s office. They file a complaint against their doctors and against X. They demand the opening of a criminal investigation to establish the responsibility of the health authorities. Many doctors continue to prescribe these fluoroquinolones for common infections: cystitis, otitis or sinusitis.
Prescriptions for unforeseen indications
In addition, a study by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirms that more than two thirds of prescriptions in France are made for indications not covered by the recommendations. “Given the seriousness of some of these effects, such as damage to the nervous system (peripheral neuropathies), neuropsychiatric disorders, a condition of the musculoskeletal system (pain and swelling in the joints, inflammation or even rupture of tendons, pain and /or muscle weakness), and their long-lasting, disabling and potentially irreversible nature, the EMA reassessed the benefit/risk ratio of fluoroquinolones in 2018-2019. This reassessment led in particular to restricting their therapeutic indications and updating their safety profile.“
The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT) for its part calls on the Ministry of Health to set up a system for doctors to justify each prescription of fluoroquinolones. “In cases of urinary tract infections, in sinusitis, we should no longer see a single prescription of first-line fluoroquinolones“, says to franceinfo Mathieu Molimard, professor at the Rouen University Hospital and head of communication for the SFPT. He judges “credible“the figure of six million unjustified prescriptions. But according to him,today there are no tools to block prescriptions. We must go further and change the legislation.”
Contacted by franceinfo, the Ministry of Health explains that it recently published a thematic file on the site of the ANSM, the medicine agencyand have requested that messages appear in prescription assistance software. A warning message was also sent a few days ago, on March 7, to all city pharmacies and the hospital.
The ministry also assures that other actions are being developed, including “the sending in the coming weeks of a mailing to all health professionals who can prescribe these antibiotics”. Finally, according to the ministry, the recommendation of the HAS “is being adjusted so that fluoroquinolones are no longer prescribed in simple cystitis in men as is already planned in simple cystitis in women.”