UK Bans Cold Medications For Children Under 2
Today, the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom has removed these medications from the shelves. Most of them will be allowed back on the shelves after the addition of a warning label saying that they should not be used on children under 2. From the article:
Sara Coakley, spokesperson for the MHRA, told BBC News it was a precautionary measure and the medicines are not dangerous.
"There's nothing wrong with these medicines, it was the way that they had been given," she said.
There was no need to panic, said Coakley, they would not be on the shelves in the first place if they were inherently dangerous.
The alert concerns 12 active ingredients: brompheniramine, chlorphenamine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, ephedrine, guaifenesin, ipecacuanha, phenylephrine, pholcodine, pseudoephedrine, oxymetazoline, and xylometazoline.
According to Times Online, at least 5 deaths of children under the age of two and more than 100 cases of serious adverse events have been linked to cough and cold medicines in Britain.
The danger occurs when a child is given too much of the cough medicine or has more than one at the same time. Small children are more at risk of overdose because of their smaller body size, said the MHRA.
The MHRA is encouraging parents to give their children simple remedies like honey and lemon.
For more information, see the older discussions linked at the beginning of this post.
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