Toxic effect of vitamin - A
The nationwide programme of administering vitamin A & deworming drug in children created huge controversy about the safety of drugs in children. In the national dailies many reports said that children felt sick after taking medicines during the programme and some children even died soon after. Meanwhile, a government committee investigated the incidence and claimed that no toxic effects were observed in children taking these medicines. This statement directly contradicts the reports published in the national dailies and broadcast by the electronic media. Despite the claim of the government committee, the fear of the local peoples has not vanished yet. If this is not clearly removed from people's mind, similar programmes will not succeed in future. But the success of these programmes is crucial for improving the health status of the children. So it's very important now to go through a more extensive and creditable investigation so that the truth can be found out clearly.
Here some points could be noted which can help in investigation. Both vitamin A and albendazole are safe drugs and they are used in many countries. Even in our country these drugs are available in chemist shops and conscious people usually take these medicines at regular interval. But so far no toxic effects have been reported in our country. So these medicines are not the cause of the controversy rather the quality of the medicines might be the reason. Though the programme was observed all over Bangladesh, complaints came from only a few districts. This explains that the drugs of central stock were not toxic, rather the drugs of stock of some districts were possibly toxic. So the storage condition at district level and expiry date of the drugs can be important clue to this controversy. The probe committee can consider the chemical analysis of the drugs. This analysis will determine whether the drugs had deteriorated during storage. It can be done easily by sending samples to drug testing lab / ICDDRB / University. Furthermore, if possible some samples may be sent to CDC, Atlanta to determine exactly what went wrong. The dosage of vitamin A is also important. As it is a fat-soluble vitamin, it retains in the body for long and overdose may produce toxic compounds inside the body. This also needs to be considered. In this committee at least one epidemiologist and one sociologist should be included alongside clinical experts. An epidemiologist has the expertise to collect wide range of data and analysis of these statistically. The sociologist has the capability to collect the sociology related data. This is important to know how the people reacted to the programme and how the government can remove their fear. The success of similar programmes in future largely depends on this understanding and taking actions accordingly.
However, I hope that relevant government authorities will take appropriate action to find out the exact reason of the controversy. And the government should need to take actions to rebuild confidence in the peoples mind.
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