New Prescribing Restrictions for Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics (to reduce risk of severe side effects)

New Prescribing Restrictions for Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics were introduced by the UK's drug regulation, the MHRA, in January 2024.

    "The MHRA has introduced further restrictions on the use of these antibiotics “to reduce the risk of potentially severe side effects”.

These are the headlines of a MIMS article, dated 22 January 2024. Clearly, it is important for all of us to know about this information. Most of us believe (because we have been told for more than 70 years now) that antibiotic drugs are "safe and effective". Yet the article talks of "severe side effects". What is this all about? Let's allow MIMS to explain:

    "This convent is only available to fully registered users".

Well, the MIMS website is only intended for healthcare professionals. So perhaps this reticence is understandable. Healthcare professionals will, of course, inform us about the dangers; as will government; as will the National Health Service (NHS), especially our doctors; as will our mainstream media. So what are we being told about these antibiotics by our media organisations?

Well, I have looked; and the answer is - nothing!

So how do we patients, or prospective patients, find out about this information? Surely we need to know what these new restrictions, and newly discovered (?) side effects of these antibiotics, are? And perhaps there needs to be some reconsideration of the "antibiotics are safe and effective" narrative the conventional medical establishment has been giving us for the last 70 years.

So let's delve deeper into the secretive, closed world of pharmaceutical medicine. What does NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Standards) tell us.

    "The MHRA and CHM have released important safety information regarding the use of systemic and inhaled fluoroquinolones. For restrictions and precautions, see Important safety information for all quinolones: ciprofloxacin, delafloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, and ofloxacin."

    "Fluoroquinolone antibiotics: new restrictions and precautions for use due to very rare reports of disabling and potentially long-lasting or irreversible side effects.

    "Disabling, long-lasting or potentially irreversible adverse reactions affecting musculoskeletal and nervous systems have been reported very rarely with fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

    "Fluoroquinolone treatment should be discontinued at the first signs of a serious adverse reaction, including tendon pain or inflammation.

The NICE link goes on with more detailed information about the side effects that are being kept secret from the lay person, plus the instructions to doctors about when NOT to prescribe these antibiotic drugs. It is a frightening read, not just because of what these drugs are now known to cause (after years/decades of prescribing them), but because it is clear that we, you and I, are not going to be told about the harm they are known to cause. Here are just a few of them.

 

Common or very common: Appetite decreased; arthralgia; asthenia; constipation; diarrhoea; dizziness; dyspnoea; eye discomfort; eye disorders; fever; fungal infection; gastrointestinal discomfort; headache; myalgia; nausea; QT interval prolongation; skin reactions; sleep disorders; taste altered; tinnitus; vision disorders; vomiting

Uncommon:Altered smell sensation; anaemia; anxiety; arrhythmias; chest pain; confusion; cough; depression; drowsiness; dry eye; eosinophilia; eye inflammation; flatulence; hallucination; hearing impairment; hepatic disorders; hyperglycaemia; hyperhidrosis; hypersensitivity; hypoglycaemia; hypotension; leucopenia; muscle weakness; neutropenia; pain; palpitations; peripheral neuropathy (sometimes irreversible); pseudomembranous enterocolitis (in adults); renal impairment; seizure; sensation abnormal; stomatitis; tendon disorders; thrombocytopenia; tremor; vertigo

Rare or very rare: Agranulocytosis; angioedema; arthritis; coordination abnormal; gait abnormal; haemolytic anaemia; idiopathic intracranial hypertension; myasthenia gravis aggravated; pancreatitis; photosensitivity reaction; polyneuropathy; psychotic disorder; severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs); suicidal behaviours; syncope; vasculitis

Frequency not known: Heart valve incompetence; hypoglycaemic coma; increased risk of aortic aneurysm (more common in elderly); increased risk of aortic dissection (more common in elderly); rhabdomyolysis (in adults).

So the MIMS news is correct. It is not 'disinformation', just information that is not being made available to the average patient who might feel they need to know about these "safe and effective" antibiotic drugs!

This is how the Pharmaceutical Medical Establishment operates. It purports to provide us with "safe and effective" treatments when we are ill, only to provide us with drugs that make us even sicker. No wonder the NHS is failing!