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Doctors warn
of painkiller link to flesh-eating disease
01 FEBRUARY 2001
Doctors have
been told to be careful when using a common painkiller when treating children
with chickenpox - because of a link to a deadly flesh-eating disease.
Some studies
have found a higher incidence of the disease, necrotising fasciitis, among
chickenpox patients treated with ibuprofen.
The drug is
sold under brand-names including Nurofen. It is in the group known as
non-steroidal anti-inflammatories -- which includes Voltaren - all of which
have been linked to the disease.
Starship
children's hospital paediatrician Dr Lesley Voss tells GPs to be cautious when
using ibuprofen in chickenpox cases in an article on a Ministry of Health
website .
Independently,
three Middlemore Hospital doctors have published a study in the latest New
Zealand Medical Journal on necrotising fasciitis.
Of the 13
people treated for the disease at the hospital's intensive care unit in 1998
and 1999, five had been taking Voltaren or other drugs in the same group. Two
of the five - and one of the patients not taking those drugs - died.
Dr Voss said
a Dunedin Hospital study of seven cases of the disease had found that five
patients had been taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Nsaids).
"The
mechanism by which Nsaids increase the risk of necrotising fasciitis may be by
impairment of the immune response, or by masking of the symptoms of secondary
infection, leading to delayed diagnosis and treatment."
But she
emphasised tonight that ibuprofen was a very useful drug and that the
"weak association" with the disease, caused by a streptococcus
bacterium found on many people's skin, was not proven.
Dr Voss had
reviewed an American study whose authors had investigated after noticing a
number of cases of necrotising fasciitis among chickenpox patients who had been
treated with ibuprofen.
Those with
the flesh-eating disease were five times more likely to have been given
ibuprofen before going to hospital.
Ministry spokesman Dr Stewart Jessamine said GPs had been alerted
to act if they saw someone taking the drugs who had a worsening skin infection.
- NZPA 
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