Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte-Blanche

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February 6, 2019 | 14 Comments

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  1. So again the drug companies have acted as if they will do something about this serious issue affecting 100,000s of people, possibly millions, but in actual fact they have done nothing that will bring about any real change that could bring about help and recognition for these poor people.

    Nicely deflected and any real action averted, so they can continue prescribing en masse, and continue making lots of profit.

    Greed before people’s lives and health, yet again.

    “We comply with the requirements of our regulatory authorities”.

    They love to bring this one out, making them sound reasonable and responsible to the uninformed. They always forget to mention the regulators are in their pockets with ex drug company employees running the MHRA, and MHRA staff having shares in the drug companies.

    “Think of the millions that have been helped by these drugs”. Another favourite deflection technique used by drug companies. But what about the millions harmed. And I would very much like to see evidence that “millions” are saved by these drugs. In serious life threatening bacterial infections some might be saved, but I doubt very much it is on the scale they mention. As has been established, most of the prescriptions for these drugs are not written for the serious life threatening infections they are intended for.

    “Laughed at, ridiculed, told it was in their imagination”. Typical response when you try to get help after being harmed by prescription drugs. It’s all you. And that’s only the ridicule you experience from the doctors. I have known of whole families ostracizing a person left damaged from prescription drugs, because they either can’t or refuse to believe what is happening to them. I have experienced this to some extent with my own family.

  2. This is a quick P.S. to my blog above. I forwarded the video link as an afterthought but I didn’t mention it in the blog as the programme was being aired around the same time as I was writing.
    A member of our group was visiting her friends and relations in South Africa over Christmas and she happened to get talking to someone who knew someone. The conversation turned to health (as always) and our friend spoke of the terrible time she’d had after being floxed. Her acquaintance turned out to work for a TV news programme and his editor had just been severely floxed. The programme was CarteBlanche, renowned for its investigative journalism, and the result of this meeting is in the 20 minute video above.
    What I find most interesting is that the South African manufacturers of fluoroquinolones have already sent out letters advising health care professionals about new restrictions following the EMA decision in Europe. Have the UK manufacturers or even the MHRA sent out similar? Not yet!

    • Interestingly heard of the Carte Blanche TV show today at work. Was prescribed Ciprobay for suspected prostatitis – after about 5 days of using the drug I contacted the urologists’ office about the joint pain, nausea and general malaise I was experiencing and was told to stop use.

      The joint pain in general has gone, but I’ve still got some quite specific pains which I’m now hoping to hell will soon pass.

      Fingers crossed I’m not in that small group of people who suffer lifelong negative effects from this drug.

  3. I have read and followed these events with great interest and would have liked to have given evidence first hand of the effects and experiences caused by this class of drugs unfortunately that is difficult when layed up virtually 24/7 with multiple and progressive bodily issues ongoing. First as so badly affected over a period of 22 years and having reported symptoms from the very outset that should have prevented at the very least being given them again or at worst given again in the situations and with contraindicated medications as to nearly kill a person and may yet given damage caused. If I had been so flippant, ignorant, dishonest, and downright incompetent In my own profession after having the number of warnings and chances of ensuring someone’s safety where prevention had plenty opportunity we would be looking at another Piper Alpha or Deep-water Horizon disaster. Basically at a scale of disaster that notice would be taken how serious. I had already witnessed first hand how cheap life is in some cases in industry I was involved in, but it has learned from its lessens to a greater extent over the similar time these drugs been available. As I write this from my bed, I could write a best seller of the medical gas lighting, lies, collusion, cover up and back it up with evidence of reportings, advice given to keep symptoms tucked away for a rainy day! Meaning for insurances. I lie here thinking of the lives wasted, my own included, I worry about the future the way I and others treated with this, a recent Gp comment after a 30+ week wait for certain tests. Quote! You won’t get any help from us or from NHS with this. So! You will just treat any additional symptoms that may arise out of the vast damage it’s caused and creating ? Like cancer, stroke, heart attack, peripheral artery disease, mast cell reactions, histamine reactions, central and autonomic nervous system issues, skin, orthopedic, asthma, the list goes on. A real chimera. Oh yes, I have considered the low cost , high profit worldwide prescribing and possible savings as well as imperial prescribing. I have considered the fact that many many drug reactions are not logged or reported for various reasons. But not to point someone has had serious injury and life threatening damage where the possibility of further damage could be prevented. I have considered the litigation aspect to and know full well a high profile action of thing I could prove may bring a great deal of unwanted media attention. I don’t doubt the powers that be have looked at this and deemed that’s enough needed. But consider this, if it was you, your husband, wife, son, daughter , grandchild, how would you feel knowing you could have done more. I realize doctors deal in death and injury, disability, illness and chancers form part of the package. But not just my life was ruined needlessly, it’s a whole family that has had to experience the effects of these drugs that unless fully experienced could not be invisaged. To then add the cover up to necessary help for damage left takes the matter beyond criminal!

    • Floroquinonoes like cipro,floxin . avelox, etc.are first biochemical poisons based on a chemo drug from the 1960s.never take unless severe lung o r oblem then dr. Must warn you. Permanent severe tendon and nerve damage. I’ve bee n disabled 25 years so far. Life’s wasted. I’m artist and writer. Lost success drug Co iwes me big never pay. No justice.

  4. Carte Blanche, a very informative film..

    Thank you for warning us..

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5983853/Why-doctors-doling-antibiotics-left-thousands-crippling-pain.html

    We have our ‘Carte Blanche’ in the UK..

    Introducing:

    We Must Look After Our Antibiotics – Trust your Doctor..

    Pinned Tweet
    Prof Sally Davies
    @CMO_England
    ·
    25 Oct 2017

    It is essential we #keepantibioticsworking – everyone has a role to play. It’s really important to trust your doctor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1NV9ueDGpk&feature=youtu.be

    Fluoroquinolones: An FDA advisory panel urge drug …
    https://medium.com/the-intrepid-fascinator/fluoroquinolones-an

    A spokesperson for the MHRA said: “Ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones are acceptably safe and effective medicines to treat a range of infections. The potential risks are clearly described …

    https://medium.com/the-intrepid-fascinator/fluoroquinolones-an-advisory-fda-panel-urge-drug-companies-for-clearer-and-prominent-label-1c6a2980fe5f

    Amongst those known to have been affected by the drug include Dick Decent, keyboardist of the rock group Def Leppard, who in September 2012 wrote in his suicide note: “I didn’t kill myself, Bayer killed me.”

    • The “Intrepid-fascinator piece was written 3 years ago and not so much has changed today except MHRA are talking to our group and we’ve been invited to two meetings with them. Other changes are that Rob Oldfield’s suffering ended in 2016 when he died from ‘heart problems’ (although I think he could probably have said the same as Dick Decent) while Jane Allen is still living with pain every day; sometimes new pains, sometimes agonising pains but always pain.

  5. To think that some Health Professionals act stupor when all this damage happens to their patients, due to the meds they prescribe, is beyond my comprehension.
    When caring loved ones question what is going on, due to erratic prescribing, they consider you ‘crazy!’
    Sadly, it seems, that all involved have a ‘Carte-Blanche’ to commit heinous crimes against their patients.
    Where are the regulatory bodies, to remedy a problem that has gone way out of control? ~ Nowhere to be seen!
    These are crimes against humanity and I cannot wait for the day when all involved are held accountable.
    How can anyone possibly speak up for anyone being mistreated with meds, if you know the consequences are dire? ~ No one seems to care or they tell you it is all inconsequential!
    How can one possibly do more, Martyn if the one who speaks up are held at ‘gunpoint!’

  6. “However, certainly by the early 1990’s, when the first Cipro license was sought, there was academic evidence that mammalian mitochondrial DNA
    (mtDNA) was damaged along with bacterial dna”.

    Most classes of psychotropic drugs, and “mood stabilisers “ eg Valproate
    Have been reported to cause damage to mtDNA.
    These intra-cellular, but extra-nuclear “energy powerhouses “ may be vulnerable to drug induced damage by their location as membranated organelles within the cytoplasm.

    The cardinal “clues” to mtDNA damage are altered liver enzymes (many other causes) and drug induced LACTIC ACIDOSIS.

    If a medication causes the latter, this is reported as likely due to mtDNA damage.

    Might therefore idiosyncratic vulnerability to mitochondrial toxicity be the basic common denominator behind the intense, multi-systems, devastating ADRs caused by antipsychotics, antidepressants et al ?

    I don’t know, but it has been suggested that the first steps to prevent mitochondrial damage should be
    “during drug development “.

  7. Thank you bring the disabiling effects fluoroquinolones cause. I too was floxed with Ciprofloxacin 7 years ago it has affected me from head to toe my life will never be the same, I wish I was warned what these drugs can do!

  8. Be aware of these insidious drugs. They cause delayed adverse reactions. They don’t always cause immediate reactions, like while on the drugs! Be aware that the Fluoroquinolones are given without your knowledge or permission.
    12 years ago I was given IV Levaquin as a prophylactic during minor surgery. I HAD NO INFECTION! Within a few months my body started to fall apart and I have not recovered.
    For me damage was permanent!

  9. Team 10 Investigates: San Diegans describe popular antibiotic causing devastating side effects

    Posted: 3:54 PM, Sep 20, 2019
    Updated: 2:25 AM, Sep 21, 2019

    SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) – It’s one of the most widely prescribed antibiotics in the country. It’s called Cipro and the side effects could lead to your death. Experts are now calling for tighter controls on these prescriptions to protect the public.

    https://www.10news.com/news/team-10/team-10-investigates-san-diegans-describe-popular-antibiotic-causing-devastating-side-effects?fbclid=IwAR1XQQ6oPBY-4hVuFRh918enZ8FKeAjwlNxgROVV8r6YgHScn0y5QpA8dt0

    On September 20, ABC News in San Diego aired this story about the debilitating and potentially deadly side effects of a popular group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. “We have suicides after 1 or 2 days of antibiotics”, says Dr. Charles Bennett. He’s a nationally recognized medication safety expert and says it’s a big problem. A review of the FDA’s data shows more than 20,000 reports of psychiatric side effects, like anxiety and depression and 174 suicides connected to these antibiotics since 1998.”

    Know Your Drugs

  10. Tinnitus, nerve damage and a racing pulse from just TWO antibiotic pills… Despite warnings, some doctors are still prescribing drugs that can leave patients with crippling side-effects

    By JO WATERS FOR THE DAILY MAIL
    PUBLISHED: 22:03, 14 September 2020 | UPDATED: 22:03, 14 September 2020

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8732343/Some-doctors-prescribing-antibiotics-leave-patients-crippling-effects.html

    ‘My GP decided to prescribe stronger fluoroquinolone antibiotics [called ofloxacin] after a seven-day course of a milder antibiotic [doxycycline] hadn’t worked,’ says Adam, 32, an NHS psychologist who lives in Carlisle, Cumbria.

    There were 589,116 prescriptions dispensed in 2019, according to NHS Digital, just less than 2 per cent of the 35 million antibiotics prescribed every year. And there have been more than 2,000 reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) for fluoroquinolones since 2014. Most ADRs are not reported.

    (In his evidence to the EMA, Dr Millar argued that the complication rate was not 1 per cent, as reported, but up to 15 per cent, and so quinolones should only be prescribed for the most serious cases in hospitals, but this was rejected by the EMA and the MHRA.)

    Dr Millar is working on a research project on quinolone toxicity with Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, NHS chair of pharmacogenetics and director of the Centre for Drug Safety Science at Liverpool University. Professor Pirmohamed says: ‘What has been discovered more recently is that patients can be affected by multi-system side-effects, including memory problems, nerve pain, lethargy and fatigue.’

  11. I was given Vancomycin for febrile neutropenia when I was in cancer treatment. After this happened a second time, the oncologist took a new tack. I was given repeated doses of Ciprofloxacin after every chemo treatment, to prevent me from becoming febrile so that I wouldn’t wind up in the hospital again and again. (And yes, I was already taking white cell colony stimulators, but they didn’t stimulate well enough.)

    I developed excruciating tooth pain at the roots of every tooth in my mouth. And I do mean excruciating. My oncologist, in his clinic notes, said I had complained of “some” pain in “one” tooth. Ha! I couldn’t have been clearer about my issues. But he chose to disbelieve/ignore me.

    To this day, I continue to have off and on pain in one section of my jawline. I can only imagine that it’s due to some kind of weakening of the collagen that keeps my teeth firmly in my head. No one seems to know why this is happening, for certain, though. From the manufacturer and the FDA down to the oncologist and my dentist. They deny all knowledge!

    I recently filled out a survey about fluoroquinolone use and side effects for a study being conducted at the University of California at San Diego. A VERY long survey. They wanted a lot of detail. Their goal is to get respondents in the thousands–both of people who have and who have not had negative LTEs. I can’t help but wonder who is funding that research. If it’s the industry, then I have real reservations about what will become of the findings. Anyone know anything about this?

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