Indonesia Still Bans Some Liquid Medicines Due to Mysterious Kidney Disease

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The Health Ministry Republic of Indonesia allowed health professionals to prescribe 156 safe syrup medicines and 12 medicines that do not have other alternatives.

However, the use of other syrup medicines is still not recommended.

Many people were left wondering when syrup medicines could be sold or consumed.

According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, dr. Mohammad Syahril, this was a temporary termination.

"The ban is temporary. Temporary means waiting for the result of the investigation to come out," said Syahril in a press conference "The Development of Acute Kidney Injury in Indonesia" on Tuesday (25/10/2022).

Syahril stated that 156 medicines had been announced which means the rest will be informed gradually.

"Hopefully, it won't take long for us to lift the ban and go back to normal again. After the examination result of the Ministry of Health and the Food and Drug Association (BPOM) is completed, "he added.

Syahril explained that BPOM is the one who had the authority to announce the result of the ongoing investigation. This includes what medicines are allowed or banned.

Moreover, according to Syahril, there will not provide any kind of compensation given to pharmacies such as drugstores related to the ban on syrup medicines.

"Compensation as a good nation and citizen, we follow the rules. This is our problem, of course, the government won't give any compensation because this is a situation that we have to bear together," Syahril said.

Based on the latest update of BPOM, a total of 189 medicines were safe from ethylene glycol (EG) and ethylene glycol (DEG) because they did not contain 4 solvent adjuvants such as propylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, glycerin, and sorbitol.

"This (study) continues and now there are (56) additional (medicines) so 189 types of medicine, including those 133. Therefore, there are medicines made without solvents. I think the government is carefully only allowing syrup medicines with no solvents," Head of BPOM Penny Lukiito said in a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday (27/10/2022).

"This will certainly be an input for the Ministry of Health and later the Ministry of Health will reannounce that this is an input from BPOM. The job of BPOM is to give justice to all companies," Penny added.

The addition of this type of medicine would continue and there would be follow-up reports in the future.

Based on the data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health as of October 24, there were at least 255 children who developed acute kidney injury (AKI).

Earlier, the government has also provided referral hospitals for patients.

Moreover, Syahril ensured that the medical expenses for AKI patients would be covered by the government.

"This funding is part of the health insurance or Social Insurance Administration Organization (BPJS) for those who have it. Second, for those who really cannot afford it, the local or central government will cover everything," Syahril said.

The same goes for the medicines for AKI. He revealed that AKI medicines such as antidotes also will be fully covered by the government.

"For antidotes imported from Australia, Singapore, maybe later (we) plan (to get them) from Japan and America, as had been told by the Minister of Health, become the government's responsibility," said Syahril.

Syahril explained that antidotes were used because of their availability and effectiveness. They also have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) with 90 percent effectiveness.

"From the 10 patients given the treatment, 10 showed meaningful clinical improvement," said Syahril.

So far, there were 14 referral hospitals for AKI disease in multiple regions in Indonesia. One of them is Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital which is located in Jakarta.

On the same occasion, Syahril revealed that additional cases of AKI were reported by 26 provinces. Moreover, the mortality rate also increased.

"As of October 24, there are 255 cases from 26 provinces. And the death counts are 143 or the mortality rate is 56 percent," Syahril said.

He explained that the addition was the new cases that had just been reported and put on the list instead of the new cases of AKI.

"These are late-to-be-reported old cases, which occurred in September and early October 2022. Therefore, they are not new cases.

"These AKI cases occur every year," he said.

However, usually, there were only 1 or 2 cases each month."Acute kidney injury came to the government's attention after there was a spike at the end of August with more than 35 total cases.

Writer: Adelina Wahyu Martanti.

Diviya Agatha contributed to this report.