France Info reveals that a dozen patients took legal action after suffering the serious adverse effects of fluroquinolones, a family of antibiotics.
- Fluoroquinolones are antibiotics intended to treat serious bacterial infections.
- They can cause severe side effects, such as heart problems for example.
- A patient association denounces unjustified prescriptions and files a complaint against their doctors and against X.
Their use should be limited to difficult-to-treat infections, but they are still widely used. Fluoroquinolones are powerful antibiotics, the prescription of which has been limited to serious bacterial infections since 2019. However, patients denounce unjustified uses, as revealed France News. They are ten to have lodged a complaint against their doctors and against X after having suffered the serious side effects caused by these drugs. According to them, doctors continue to prescribe them for mild infections, such as cystitis.
Fluoroquinolones: what are the effects of these drugs?
It was to treat this urinary tract infection that Danielle received a prescription for Ofloxacin, an antibiotic from the fluoroquinolone family, in December 2021. Parisian, she tells how the side effects appeared. She felt pain in the ankles, electric shocks in certain parts of the body or joint pain. After stopping treatment, some symptoms persist, such as discharge in the arms or pain in the joints. “These drugs have (…) ruined my life”confides the septuagenarian.
According to a document from the National Medicines Safety Agency, fluoroquinolones can cause lesions in the tendons, or even rupture of them, heart rhythm disorders, neuro-psychiatric disorders, damage to peripheral nerves or still sensitive to the sun. “These side effects can appear from the first 48 hours of treatment and up to several months after stopping treatment. precise the ANSM. The duration of side effects is also highly variable from patient to patient..”
Antibiotics: why are fluoroquinolones used?
In view of these serious side effects, the prescription authorizations for these drugs are limited. “The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reassessed the benefit/risk ratio of fluoroquinolones in 2018 -2019explain the ANSM. This reassessment led in particular to restricting their therapeutic indications.” Thus, the agency specifies that they are indicated in the treatment of serious bacterial infections, which can be life-threatening. But they must be avoided in “situations where other antibiotics may be used“.
Fluoroquinolones: how to limit prescriptions?
However, according to the patient association, they are still over-prescribed in France. According to them, six million unjustified prescriptions have been made since 2019. France NewsMathieu Molimard, professor at the Bordeaux University Hospital and head of communication for the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, says that this figure is “credible” and that it is necessary to better supervise the prescriptions. He recalls however that he “not there today we don’t have the tools to block prescriptions” and he feels he”we have to go further and change the legislation”.
The Ministry of Health explained to France News that a reminder campaign by e-mail was going to be carried out in the coming weeks, aimed at health professionals who can prescribe these drugs. The recommendations of the High Authority of Health should also be adapted so that they are no longer prescribed in the case of simple cystitis. At ParisianPhilippe Coville, president of the patient association, speaks of a “negligent poisoning“, and affirms that he wants to continue the fight so that “justice be done“.
