• Events.OC, one of the 17 babies with the false werewolf syndrome after taking a syrup
  • Diseases: Werewolf syndrome, an ultra rare disease and not a side effect of omeprazole
  • Hypertrichosis. Defective omeprazole baby pharmacies will be withdrawn

The acting Minister of Health, María Luisa Carcedo, told the Malaga -based company Farma-Química Sur yesterday as the person responsible for the error that has caused at least 17 babies to suffer from hypertrichosis - excessive hair growth - by ingesting crepe instead of omeprazole He had been prescribed by his pediatricians. «Minoxidil was placed in a container labeled omeprazole. The analyzes of the protocols were carried out, all the lots were immobilized and the precautionary closure of the laboratory where the origin of the error was carried out ”, said Carcedo to the media during an event held at the Ministry of Health , in statements collected by Europa Press .

Thus, the active substance for treating alopecia, mistakenly labeled as omeprazole, was distributed to pharmacies that used it to make children's syrups, since babies are given omeprazole in this presentation and according to the doses prescribed for each baby. Some items with the wrong active substance were distributed to pharmacies in Cantabria (10 affected babies), Granada (4) and the Valencian Community (3). The Spanish Medicines Agency withdrew 22 lots in July and one more in early August. "There is no longer any batch of any package of this wrong product," said the Minister of Health, closing the alert. "The cases occurred months ago," he added.

Along the same lines, Jesús Aguirre , Minister of Health and Families of Andalusia, pronounced a community in which four babies suffer what has been mistakenly called the werewolf syndrome, due to the similarity of the appearance of children with whom they suffer from this strange disease genetics. "It has been a punctual thing of a masterly formula," Aguirre said to La Sexta , and added that the hair "will disappear as soon as the product is stopped."

The statements of the minister and the Andalusian counselor have caused discomfort in the Patient Advocate , the association where they called to ask for help the first parents who detected the abnormal growth of hair in their children. Its president, Carmen Flores , describes them as "unfortunate" and considers that they show "disinterest and disrespect for parents." “They come to say that nothing has happened here, that it has been a thing of little hairs and little else, and it is not so,” says Carmen Flores.

From the Patient Advocate, it is recalled that minoxidil, in addition to alopecia, is used as a vasodilator to treat hypertension. "This medicine, when administered orally and taken in significant amounts, can be dangerous," says Flores. «And it is also said by the prospect, which can affect the heart and liver; Some mother has said that her son may have touched his liver, ”he adds.

«They are trying to minimize the seriousness of the matter, the damage», responds to the health authorities Amaya , mother of OC, an affected 26-month-old girl, who is trying to contact other parents through the Patient Advocate, «in order to share that we are suffering and take joint measures if appropriate, ”he says. "What is recommended when minoxidil is given orally is that it has a concentration of 2% to 5% and our children have been given 100% pure minoxidil," as a sign of their concern about the damage that may have caused medication to your daughter in addition to excess hair. "Lately she gets very tired, she has sweating, she is panting and we are waiting for her to see her cardiologist," he explains. "And thank God that such a striking symptom has come out as an excess of brutal hair, because if it had been a latent thing that is slowly damaging internal organs, I would still take it."

When the hair will disappear from children, yesterday, the Spanish Association of Dermatology sent parents a reassuring message: "Three months after stopping the drug, the hair will start to fall out," Cristina Serrano , coordinator of the Efe, told Efe Spanish trichology group, which studies hair problems. Amaya's daughter stopped taking the fake omeprazole on May 15. Three and a half months later it remains the same "The dermatologist has told me that in principle she expects it to fall out in six months, but that she cannot assure it because she has not taken it in controlled doses and there are no precedents."

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