RIYADH, 1 April — Major hospitals of Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the Ministry of Health are monitoring some medicines currently being prescribed for the treatment of skin disorders and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as these drugs have caused public concern. The hospitals are investigating the harmful effects of these medicines, which are sold by over 600 pharmacies in the Kingdom.
This was disclosed by Dr. Issam R. Hamadah, consultant dermatologist at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (KFSH & RC), here yesterday. He was speaking at a high-profile international medical congress, which opened amid calls for checking the growing incidence of skin disorders and STDs. This event has been organized by the Saudi Society of Dermatology and Venereology (SSDV), which seeks to disseminate information about skin disorders and sexually transmitted infections.
A number of multinational pharmaceutical companies and local firms are participating in the four-day event. The congress, to be addressed by a panel of five world-renowned experts of dermatology and venereology, is being attended by over 300 delegates. The symposium will discuss subjects like non-surgical skin rejuvenation, chemical peeling, hair removal, treatment of psoriasis and vascular malformations.
The event will also shed new light on sexually transmitted infections, which are associated with serious morbidity in their own right and may also facilitate HIV transmission by increasing genital inflammation.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), there were 340 million cases of curable sexually transmitted infections reported last year. These include 10 million cases in the Middle East and North Africa.
Referring to the monitoring of medicines, which sometimes affect body systems adversely, Dr. Hamadah said, “Saudi Arabia is no different from any other country in terms of the number of patients suffering from various ailments.” This is evident from the number of patients checking in major health facilities on a daily basis with complaints of itching, excessive hairiness, baldness, dermatitis, rashes, sores, bedsores, fungal and parasitic skin infections, skin cancers and sweating disorders”.
To a question as how to tighten restrictions on the sale of medicines with harmful effects, he pointed out that a medicine called Hismanal, manufactured by a leading pharmaceutical company, was taken off the shelves of local pharmacies recently after it was found that this particular drug is harmful when taken in combination with other medicines.
The withdrawal of this medicine, he said, was carrid out voluntarily by the manufacturing company.
He said that “the more drugs you find in the market, the more you learn about their positive and negative effects”. There are over 5,000 types of medicines currently sold in Saudi Arabia, a country which imports 85 percent of its total consumption.
The Kingdom, where medicines worth SR3 billion are sold annually, is currently reviewing several new proposals for registration of medicines.
Dr. Hamadah said skin diseases are “very common”. He, however, sounded alarm over the growing incidence of skin disorders among schoolchildren.
