Anti-bleeding drug widely ignored
Wednesday July 24th, 2013
A simple treatment could save the lives of countless bleeding trauma patients and is "shockingly" neglected, experts say today.
Traumatic
bleeding kills more people each year than HIV/Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis
combined, say Professor Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, UK, and colleagues in the British
Medical Journal today (24 July).
Tranexamic acid, given as a short IV infusion within three hours, "substantially reduces death in bleeding trauma patients", say the authors. But they point out that the World Health Organisation, the UN, the World Bank, and Unicef do not seem to be prioritising the global use of the drug.
"You might expect that the identification of this highly cost-effective treatment would stimulate an immediate global health policy response, with strong efforts to make the treatment freely available to all those who need it," write the authors.
"You would be wrong. There has been no global health policy response."
The British army and the NHS began using tranexamic acid rapidly, but efforts from global organisations "have been limp or absent", say the experts. "It seems that some deaths are more important than others."
They add that, because it reduces the need for blood transfusions, tranexamic acid is a cost-effective way to reduce the infections transmitted by transfusion such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.
"Recognising these opportunities requires a new mode of thinking," the authors conclude. "It requires a move away from disease-based leadership, where tribal leaders bang the drum of disease burden in search of the funds to prevent the specific illness that interests them most, towards people centred care, aimed at achieving the best health given the available resources."
Alvarado, J. C.et al. Observations: Tranexamic acid in trauma: we need stronger global health policy. BMJ 24 July 2013 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f4593 [abstract]
Tags: A&E | Pharmaceuticals | UK News | World Health
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