The Ministry of Health has issued a warning on the medication “Ketoconazole”; an anti-fungal medication that is currently being is Belize. The Ministry says that it is aware that the medication has been proven to have toxic effects on liver when digested oral; which means in the form of tablets or liquid. So far, no negative effects have been seen when the medication is use on the skin as a lotion however, in some countries have banned the medication. Chief Pharmacist at the Ministry of Health, Sharon Anderson, says that in the case of Ketoconazole, the risks outweigh the benefits.
SHARON ANDERSON
“We at the ministry received a warning from the European Union medicine agency highlighting the post market surveillance of the product whereby it demonstrated that is causes liver damage and after repeated studies they decided to suspend the use of it because of the nature of the risk involved and the study has shown that the risk does not outweigh the benefits and we know that it is a drug that we use because it is prescribed through the NHI and so we decided to warn our physicians and to let them proceed with that caution. It is a warning for you not to use it especially, the oral route; we here don’t have the facility or the medium to do our own testing, normally, we would depend on reports coming from the European Union or the FDA and those are the guiding authorities that we would use when we look at post market surveillance of medication because medication on a whole has its risks and benefits. If someone had been using it they need to consult their physician and do regular liver testing; we haven’t received any reports in Belize but we are moving on the side of caution.”
The National Health Insurance has in stock over four hundred tablets of the drugs which after this warning will more likely be destroyed by fire.