The Indonesian Ministry of Health is bolstering collaboration with the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) in a bid to improve the drug control system in Indonesia.
“The incident of acute kidney failure has several meanings. One of them is conducting an audit and bringing about improvements in the drug control system,” the ministry’s spokesperson Mohammad Syahril noted here, Wednesday.
Syahril stated that the government had made a firm policy to respond to the several cases of acute kidney disorders. One of the approaches was through updating the drug control system.
Syahril highlighted that cooperation between the Ministry of Health and BPOM was close since the two institutions were interrelated in handling the case of drug poisoning that caused acute kidney failure.
He noted that after investigating the alleged intoxication in the syrup drug, the Ministry of Health immediately submitted a report to BPOM to investigate the case.
“The BPOM checks carefully to find out how much content is in the drug and the thresholds that are permissible and not permissible,” he remarked.
Until now, the Ministry of Health still prohibits the circulation of hundreds of syrup drugs to prevent an increase in the number of patients with acute kidney disorders. All of these drugs are still under BPOM’s examination.
“There are so many liquid drugs that must be checked. We have only checked some of them. We want to make sure that all of them are safe to finally lift the ban,” Syahril stated.
The number of patients with acute kidney disorders that were cured had shown progression. The ministry reports that until Tuesday, some 325 cases of acute kidney disease were reported, with some 39 of them being cured.
Hence, the government continues to implement policies as a precautionary measure to reduce morbidity and mortality due to acute kidney disorders. One of the measures taken is by bringing in hundreds of vials of the antidote Fomepizole injection imported from Singapore, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
“A total of 146 vials have been distributed to 17 hospitals in 11 provinces, while 100 vials are stored as stock at the central pharmacy installation,” Syahril stated.
Source: Antara News