Creating awareness; ROADSIDE DRUGS KILL by @shance-light
Hello fellow steemians hope we are all doing great, today am writing on a very sensitive issue which is of great negligence in Cameroon.
chilling at one end
On this faithful day, i was on a night shift, being a calm and cold evening, i decided to update some registers. At about 9;30pm, a child was rushed in, looking at the child, i noticed the eyes were swollen, difficulty in responding, high temperature. Upon further examination, i realised that the child had rashes (erythema) that is red, almost fainting. On questioning, i was told the child had fever and was given Artemether- lumefantrin tablets, and after taking it ( though under dose), they started seeing rashes but taught it was mosquitoes bite.
Source
example of rash that develops due to allergies
In medicine its called anaphylaxis and has the following signs and symptoms; rashes, itches, difficulty in breathing, flush or pale skin, vomiting and fainting.
Source
I wont go into the mechanism of action but in severe cases the patient can die within few minutes if not intervened fast. In most case of roadside incidents, the Patients may not be allergic to any derivative of the drug but the quality, most of roadside medications are;
- expired
- low quality production or not the orginal drugs.
- most of these drugs are manufactured in the streets by people who didn't see a chemistry teacher.
the quality of the drug the child drank, looks larger than the normal quartem, looks stoft but its cheaper too
Back to our story, upon realizing that its an allergy, i started immediate intervention and he was revived.
what interventions can you take when you meet such situations.
When u take any medication and starts noticing any signs as above:
- immediately drink much water
- try to vomit out the content
- you can take dexamethasone (from a right source)
- rush to the closest health facility immediately.
prevention is better than cure
Though times are hard, roadside drugs should be avoided, even if its the worse;
- buy from any medical personnel around you than can easily intervene or know what to do than from these guys that cant even pronounced the name of the drugs they are selling.
- rush to the hospital when u are sick.
- rush patient or victim to a hospital immediately, dont wait for signs to die down.
Roadside drugs kill.
Thanks for reading.
Very informative… thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading, u are welcome dr
Thanks for passing such an information🙏and prevention is really better than cure.
U are welcome
Such information is really good, thank you very much.
You don't know how helpful it is
U are welcome
This is dangerous and some think is cheaper buying at raods side
Especially in Cameroon