E-drug: Re: amodiaquine
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me add to Dr. Laing's letter about amodiaquine not being added
to the WHO Model List of Essential Drugs.
A paper by Adjuik, et al, in The Lancet (2002; 359: 1365-72)
presented data on 941 children treated with amodiaquine or
amodiaquine-artesunate for P. falciparum malaria in Africa. Nine of
these patients (9941), or nearly 1%, developed neutropenia
(absolute neutrophil count below 1000/microL). There was a decline
in serial neutrophil counts in 60% of the cases. The authors state:
"this finding calls for further work to assess the safety and to
define the risk:benefit ratio of repeated amodiaquine or
amodiaquine- artesunate use."
With the safety still in need of adequate assessment, it was
reasonable to wish to reconsider the issue of adding this drug back
to the Model List after the safety could be more fully evaluated
rather than adding it now in view of this question of safety.
Marcus M. Reidenberg, MD
Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine
Head, Division of Clinical Pharmacology
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Editor Emeritus, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
1300 York Ave., Box 70
New York, NY 10021
e-mail: mmreid@med.cornell.edu
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html