Experts attending the conference that aimed to promote awareness of side effects and abuse of medicines said Vietnam lacked a professional system to track the side effects of medicines and provide timely feedback to health authorities and patients.

They also warned that many hospitals in the country were going overboard in administering injections and prescribing vitamins in treating patients.

Hoang Thanh Mai of the Health Ministry’s Drug Administration office said of the more than 2,000 cases of side effects reported last year, 46 percent were caused by antibiotics, 3.5 percent by vitamins and 2.7 percent from traditional medicines.

However, she said these were statistics randomly reported by hospitals.

Health Minister Cao Minh Quang admitted information on medicines’ side effects collected so far has been mostly based on sponsored studies.

The tracking and information on drugs’ side effects ended when the sponsorship ended, he added.

Quang also said information available on results of clinical tests run on medicines had been insufficient in many cases.

“Many medicines had to be revoked shortly after they’d been approved because the side effects were more dangerous than their therapeutic value,” he said.

David Lee of the Center for Pharmaceutical Management, an international nonprofit organization, also said clinical tests of many medicines have been limited in terms of scale and duration.

The medicines, therefore, should be tracked after being sold to evaluate possible harmful effects and therapeutic properties, he said.

He cited several examples of unpredicted harmful reactions to several medicines, including Aminophenazone (or amidopyrine) - which caused the killing of white blood cells; Erythromycin estolate - which adversely affected the liver and bile; and Thalidomide – which could lead to birth defects in children.

Up to 19 percent of patients admitted to hospitals suffer harmful side effects from prescribed medicines but around 70 percent of these can be prevented, he added.

Abuse of injections and vitamins

The Drug Administration informed the conference that all hospitals nationwide had a committee tasked with supplying enough medicine as well as managing their quality and proper use.

However, Nguyen Thi Phuong Cham of the Health Ministry’s Diagnosis and Treatment Department said many committees hadn’t fulfilled their responsibilities.

“Many committees have not produced regular and timely reports on the harmful side effects of medicines,” she said. “Moreover, the market mechanism has had a bearing on some doctors in prescribing.” (Doctors are given commissions by pharmaceutical companies for prescribing their medicines, and tend to favor products that fetch them the highest commissions.)

A research study on the use of medicines at the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi also found high rates in the use of injections, in as many as 82 percent of 1,800 patient records.

Some wards in the hospital were using injections in all their treatments.

Around 50 percent of patients worldwide are prescribed injections and 90 percent of these cases are unnecessary, experts warned the conference.

Many hospitals in Vietnam also prescribe a large quantity of vitamins, for between 70 and 100 percent of its patients.

“This is an abuse of vitamins, which can have harmful effects,” said Tran Nhan Thang from Bach Mai Hospital. “Advertising may have contributed to the overuse of the vitamins.”

Le Viet Hung, principal of the Hanoi Pharmaceutical University, said several research studies and surveys had found doctors prescribing up to six medicines for one patient, exposing the patient to potential harmful effects from their interaction.

Reported by Nam Son