The ANSM has announced that the drug used against tetanus is out of stock. To ensure continuity of care, another product will be authorized exceptionally.
The drug recommended to treat tetanus is currently the subject of stock shortages in the city and supply tensions in hospitals, announced the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM).
In a letter sent by the laboratory producing Gammatetanos, LFB Biomédicaments, explains that it is facing “supply difficulties linked to an unusual and recent increase in needs and production difficulties”.
Rare in industrialized countries, tetanus is ubiquitous in developing countries. In the latter, the World Organization estimates that a newborn baby dies every 9 minutes. This disease is not transmitted from person to person. It is due to the action of a toxin secreted by the bacteria Clostridium tetani present in soil and animal droppings. Thus, it is usually caught after an injury with a tool soiled with soil.
An exceptionally authorized drug
In France, the incidence of tetanus fell considerably in the last half of the 20th century. According to the Institute for Public Health Surveillance, 95 cases were reported to the authorities between 2005 and 2014 while there were more than 300 in 1975 alone. Among the recent cases, 26 have died, or nearly one. third of those infected. Most of them are over 70 years old.
However, these deaths could be avoided thanks to the anti-tetanus vaccination as well as the use of tetanus prophylaxis in the event of contaminated wounds in subjects whose vaccination is incomplete, too old or unknown, as is the case with the Gammatetanos.
Also, in agreement with the ANSM, the LFB Biomédicaments laboratory will make available on an exceptional and temporary basis another drug called Tetagam P twice as much in dosage than that currently recommended. This product will be provisionally reserved for health establishments with an emergency service. Patients requiring an injection of this immunoglobulin should therefore be redirected to these hospitals.
.
