WHO Alert – Yemen and Lebanon – Substandard (contaminated) METHOTREXTM
The following message is courtesy of Dr. Raffaella Ravinetto, Public Health Department, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Belgium.
Dear Friends,
Sadly, I am sharing one more WHO Alert that concerns a poor-quality medicine that harmed children. As the Alert reads, “following adverse events in pediatric patients receiving METHOTREXTM 50mg, the health authorities in both Yemen and Lebanon conducted microbiological testing on the remaining unopened vials of METHOTREXTM 50mg. Results in both countries were positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, indicating contamination of the products […] Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infection is a serious infection that may lead to death and any product that has any contamination and is administered directly in the body would present serious risks to patients”.
Noteworthy, the product was intended to be sold exclusively on the Indian market: “METHOTREXTM 50mg batch MTI2101BAQ available in Yemen and Lebanon was procured outside the regulated supply chain. Therefore, the stated manufacturer cannot guarantee the safety of this product which was not destined for these markets. However, it is likely that this product may have been distributed to other countries through informal markets”. Feel very free to widely distribute this information, as part of a joint effort to detect the product and to prevent further harm.
Warm regards,
Raffaella