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Vietnam orders recall of stroke pills after discovery of toxins

Vietnam orders recall of stroke pills after discovery of toxins

Thursday, August 28, 2014, 17:38 GMT+7

Vietnamese health authorities on Wednesday ordered a recall of a batch of dietary supplements used alongside drugs to treat cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) imported from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) after they found toxic substances in their ingredients.

The Food Safety Department (FSD) under the Ministry of Health issued a decision yesterday to suspend, revoke, and destroy a batch of Angong Niuhuang pills, which was found being imported into Vietnam from the DPRK in June this year.

The decision was made after the FSD received a notice from the Pharmaceutical Management Department (PMD), also under the health ministry, saying that lot 8-2 of supplementary foods named Angong Niuhuang pills contains lead, mercury and asen – which are all harmful to humans.

The batch was produced in February 2014 and will expire in February 2017.

The pills’ lead, mercury, and asen contents are 0.25mg/g, 33.2 mg/g and 38.9 mg/g, respectively. 

These concentrations are thousands of times higher than the acceptable levels under Vietnamese standards, said Dr. Dang Quoc Khanh, deputy head of the Military Medicine Department under the Ministry of Defense, who is also a researcher of the Angong Niuhuang pill.

The finding was made while PMD staffers were inspecting the quality of Angong Niuhuang available in the form of both medical drugs and supplementary foods on the market, the PMD said.

Only for medical emergencies Currently, Angong Niuhuang tablets, in both forms, can be found easily on the market and many people consider them ‘magical drugs’ for preventing or treating CVA, the medical term for a stroke. These pills, which stem from China, the Republic of Korea or the DPRK, are packed in paper or metal boxes and offered for sale at different prices. Those subject to the recall are priced at VND5 million (US$236) a box.         Dr. Khanh said that Angong Niuhuang is a kind of oriental traditional drug intended for preventing CVA and treating complications from it. However, this drug is not allowed to be used as a replacement for medicines used to help ease hypertension that can lead to a stroke, Dr. Khanh said. He also stressed that this drug is indicated for medical emergency cases only. Meanwhile, the recalled Angong Niuhuang tablets can be taken on a daily basis for both adults and children, Dr. Khanh said, citing their ‘direction for use.’Precaution Dr. Nguyen Huy Thang, head of the cerebrovascular pathology department of the People’s Hospital 115 in Ho Chi Minh City, quoted the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association as warning that stroke or CVA patients should not be given oral medications, including Angong Niuhuang pills, before being hospitalized. Usually when in a stroke, patients find it difficult to swallow, so if they take medicines orally, they can be choked with the drugs, causing pneumonia, Dr. Thang explained. The hospital recently received a stroke patient who had been fed with an Angong Niuhuang pill and the pill was stuck in the patient’s throat, causing breathing difficulties.  Doctors had to manage to remove the pill before treating the patient, Dr. Thang said. “Such a case is a regretful waste of time, as the ‘golden time’ for treating a stroke is the first three hours since its onset,” he added.

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