Midazolam, illustration - AP / SIPA

  • Do operating room surgeons and nurses have to work with illegible anesthetics because their labels are written in a foreign language, with no translation at hand?
  • This is what a collective affirms on Twitter, photos of these products bearing ideograms in support.
  • The Ministry of Health confirms to 20 Minutes that an order for foreign products has been made to alleviate a risk of shortage linked to the Covid-19 crisis, but affirms that explanatory sheets have been provided to the establishments concerned.

Are they hydroalcoholic gels? Or drugs? On Twitter, the photos of two different bottles with labels illegible for the general public, unfamiliar with ideograms, are enough to question Internet users. 

The leaflets accompanying them are not more useful since they do not contain any translation: only the discreet mention, in English, of the name of these products makes it possible to know that it is about Propofol and Midazolam, two anesthetic injections used in operating theater.

🚨 [# Shortage # Anesthesia # Operating Room # Safety] 🚨
👉 Manual exclusively in Chinese for anesthesia products in operating theaters in France!
👉 Where is the safety and quality control of these drugs ?? !!
👉 Marketing authorization ?? @ DIVIZIO1 pic.twitter.com/mC94vSgUgE

- Inter-Blocs Collective (@CBlocs) August 22, 2020

And it is because these two products remain indecipherable for French professionals that the Inter-Bloc Collective shared the photos on Twitter.

🚨 [# Shortage #Globalization # COVID19] 🚨
👉 Chinese drugs are invading the operating theaters of 🇨🇵!
👉 Danger! Notice in Mandarin!
It must be in French!
👉 AMM ?? @ olivierveran! @AssoCovid @ DIVIZIO1 @ LeHuffPost @RTenfrancais @ mel75010 @ WhatsUpDoc_mag @ afpfr pic.twitter.com/zPgJ55og3P

- Inter-Blocs Collective (@CBlocs) August 25, 2020

"Notice exclusively in Chinese of products for anesthesia in operating theaters in France!" Where is the safety and quality control of these drugs ?? !! Marketing authorization ?? "," Chinese drugs are invading operating theaters! Danger ! Notice in Mandarin! It must be in French! AMM ?? »Is indignant this group of defense of operating room professionals in two tweets, dated August 22 and 25.

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Contacted by 20 Minutes , Grégory, spokesperson for the Inter-Bloc Collective, specifies that the two products were delivered to different public hospitals, at two distinct periods: “The Midazolam was taken in a hospital in Annecy in June, and Profopol in Occitanie a few days ago. "

“This is the first time we've seen Chinese products in operating theaters. There was a phase of great shortage of anesthesia products after the wave of post-confinement hospitalizations, which is why the resumption of surgery was complicated. These products appear more and more in the blocks and replace the usual stock. At the beginning, there were a few sporadic establishments but we have more and more establishments coming back up, in Limoges, Toulouse, Sens ... ”, he continues.

If he recognizes that the products in question have despite everything been used by the nursing staff concerned because "no surgery would have been possible otherwise", he points to the questions and concerns associated with these stocks: "As the instructions are not not in French, it is not possible to verify possible side effects or whether they have been authorized on the European market. "

Medicines authorized by the National Medicines Safety Agency 

Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Ministry of Health confirms the exceptional presence of such products in French hospitals: “In the context of a pandemic due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the needs for drugs intended for anesthesia-resuscitation have been multiplied - sometimes by 20 - from March, leading to an increased risk of shortages in hospitals. The National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM) has therefore authorized the laboratories (or Public Health France) marketing these medicines in France to import products initially intended for foreign markets.

“Some of these products were therefore labeled in a foreign language, sometimes using non-Latin alphabets. In order to enable these drugs to be made available as quickly as possible within hospital services, and thus to ensure that patients' health needs are covered, it was not possible to re-label them, nor to carry out notices in French, the re-labeling period being several weeks, ”the ministry specifies. 

He also underlines that explanatory sheets were provided to the hospitals concerned as well as on the ANSM site to avoid the “main risks of medication error”.

French labels also distributed

If the Inter-bloc Collective affirms that it has not received any feedback on the provision of these sheets and that "the products were supplied as they are in the field", the ministry adds that " hospital pharmacists to distribute these sheets and the special conditions and precautions for the use of these drugs to healthcare teams, and particularly those in intensive care, ”.

The Ministry of Health finally tells us that the hospitals that have received these specific stocks of Midazolam and Propofol have, on the other hand, had labels in French to affix on them - information again not transmitted from the field to the Inter-Blocs Collective. 

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