Ninety percent of medicines have no children's clothes, "drug amount is reduced," blurring parents' hardships.

Business Club September 15th In early September, the reporter received a help phone call - a friend's child coughed, ran a circle of pharmacies, and could not buy children's anti-inflammatory drugs. The pharmacy recommended "Yan Li Xiao" and bought it back. With regard to dosage, there are only four characters in the manual: Children reduce it. The child is only 5 years old.

In subsequent visits, the reporter found that not only pharmacies but regular hospitals lacked children's special drugs. A pediatrician told reporters that it is a "convention" that people have to reduce adult medicines for children. In the face of unknown language instructions, many parents are at a loss. Undoubtedly, the vague drug use has laid a hidden danger for children's drug safety.

Drug dosage reduced, parents difficult to solve math problems

“Every time you give your child medicine to take a headache!” said Ma Lili, of Nanjing Yipinli Ting Community. Her child, who is 7 years old this year, is not physically fit and she is susceptible to cold illness. When drugs are returned from hospitals or pharmacies, there are only adults on the instructions, and children only have four words, "the amount of drugs is reduced." “When you were 3 years old, the amount of the drug was reduced. When you were 7 years old, it was still 'decreasing'. The children are growing every year. How to reduce the dose is right? Sometimes the doctor is asked, and the doctor can't explain completely. This is not the same as having experience. This is not tantamount to taking his own baby for drug trials and letting children do 'rats'? Fortunately, nothing has happened!"

An English teacher from a middle school in Nanjing said that his child was 3 years old this year and he was ill once. The doctor gave him two medicines. One was a half-half a day and twice a day, which was easy to handle. There is also a Chinese medicine, a grain, the doctor said that the amount of adults used is two packets a day, the child is small, it is best twice a day, the balls in the two bags to eat three times. “Drugs don’t dare to eat less, afraid of affecting results; they don’t dare to eat too much, the children are too small, and they are afraid of using drugs that are poisoned. This can be tragic. Just like doing math problems, it is calculated again and again. , really frustrating enough to be jealous - wait for myself to be a math teacher!

In the general pharmacy, a pharmacist named Cheng said frankly that at present, in almost all pharmacies, there are very few varieties and specifications of children's special drugs. The vast majority are adult drugs. In children, medication is generally reduced in adult use. Parents are often consulted about their usage and dosage. They can only say "decrease" or "according to doctor's orders," because the drug label says so.

The pharmacist told reporters that there was even more tossing about consumption: One time, a mother came and asked if there was an anti-inflammatory drug. Her child was only 13 years old, but she was fat. She took care of it and was shocked. The amount of one day was even more than an adult. If you really eat, the consequences of overdose may be disastrous.

90% of medicines do not have children's clothes

Due to the lack of dedicated medicines, how parents can accurately “use medication” for their children is indeed a problem. However, compared with this, the risks associated with the improper use of adult drugs cannot be underestimated.

On September 10, when the reporter was outpatient at the Provincial People's Hospital, he met a Mr. Zhao from Nanjing Liuhe District. His daughter had some time ago blowing cold air conditioners, had a headache and a cough, and went to a pharmacy downstairs to buy a cold medicine and a spirulina to eat. In the past, it was just fine for adults to eat for a few days. It was not only unsatisfactory for the children to have eaten for a few days, but they had symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. Parents panicked and quickly arrived at the big hospital. The doctor said it may be caused by overdose.

The pediatric experts of the Provincial People's Hospital introduced that children are a special group. They have their own physiological and metabolic characteristics, and are not "reduced versions" of adults. Many adult medicines cannot replace children's medicine. Children's organs are relatively tender, easily damaged, and their drug metabolism is low. The absorption of drugs is significantly different from that of adults. Especially for young children, a little more medicine will cause problems.

"Even if the dosage is accurate, the use of adult medicine for children will have a direct impact on the accuracy and efficacy of the dose." Bao Shanhua, a doctor at the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, told reporters: "Some medicines are not suitable for use after separation, such as aspirin enteric-coated." Tablets need to play a role in the intestinal tract. If they are opened, they will lose their activity in stomach acid and damage the gastric mucosa."

According to a survey conducted by related parties, the adverse drug-response rate for children in our country was 12.9% and 24.4% for newborns, compared with 6.9% for adults. Children who suffer from inappropriate drug use are increasing at a rate of more than 30,000 a year. In July of this year, a group of adverse reactions to drug abuse prevention occurred in Sichuan. One of the three-year-old girls died and the cause of death was "overdose."

The reporter learned from relevant parties that the number of sick children in China accounts for about 20% of the total number of patients. However, out of more than 3,500 pharmaceutical preparations, 90% of the drugs do not have children's dosage forms, and most of them are fuzzy medications used by children. .

Children's drug standards are urgently needed

Why is the demand so great, but children's special drugs are rare in the market? In an interview, the reporter learned that the vast majority of pharmaceutical companies do not produce specialized children's medicine at all.

One of the reporter’s students worked in a large pharmaceutical company in the province for more than 10 years. He told reporters that there are only a few pharmaceutical companies in China that produce drugs for children and are limited to commonly used drugs. The reason why pharmaceuticals do not produce is because children have high drug costs and thin profits. "As a pharmaceutical factory, we must understand that children's use of drugs should be distinguished from adults. However, children's drugs have a longer development cycle than adult drugs, and even if the production process is the same as adult drugs, because of the small dose, the price will not go up and the profits will be low." He also told reporters that foreign developed countries have policy support and corresponding tax incentives for the development of children's special drugs, clinical trials, etc. At present, domestic countries lack the corresponding incentive measures. "Don't say that children's new drugs are developed, and every drug in general changes. Dosage, change of packaging, must be re-declared, which pharmaceutical companies are not willing to do this time-consuming and labor-consuming things do not make money!"

The reporter learned from the interview that at the beginning of this year, a number of medical experts jointly proposed that relevant state departments should add special pediatric medicines to the national essential medicine list. Some cities in China have subsequently made some supplements to the basic drug list, and the problem of children's drug use has not been fundamentally resolved.

The pediatrician of the Provincial People's Hospital reminded parents that the doctors prescribed adult medicines for children, which was also due to the lack of help from children's medicines. However, when the child is ill, try not to buy medicines for the children. Go to the hospital for doctors to diagnose for the children. The doctors in the regular hospitals will combine the child’s age, weight, and conditions to determine the dosage.

This reporter learned that in 2007, WHO released the “Standard List of Essential Children's Medicines”; in June this year, it officially released the first “World Health Organization Children's Standard Formulary” for all countries, providing information on how to use more than 240 basics. Drug treatment information for children aged 0-12 years. According to experts from Nanjing Medical University, “this text actually provides standard information on the usage, dosage, side effects, and contraindications related to children's medicines. Based on this, the content of children's medicine supplemented by the National Essential Drug List can be expanded. The 'Chinese version' of children's drug standards is also urgently needed. The current problem of children's non-standard drug use should be completely changed."