swaziland times

BETHANY – A lack of medicine to treat epilepsy has allegedly left some of the 65,000 sufferers disfigured as they are being offered alternative medications.

According to some patients diagnosed with epilepsy, they received monthly treatment. However, due to the shortage of medicines and drugs in public health institutions, pharmacists had to prescribe them alternative medicines. Patients interviewed by this publication said that the prescription drugs they were prescribed were quite expensive, and in retail pharmacies, these drugs cost between 500 and 750 euros.

Patients diagnosed with epilepsy claim that they are supposed to receive medications from public health institutions every month to stabilize possible epileptic seizures. The information collected indicates that 65,000 people in the country are diagnosed with epilepsy. This is equivalent to 5.4% of the population of about 1.2 million. At the same time, patients told this publication that due to the unavailability of the originally prescribed medication, they took alternative medicines, which caused them to experience a lot of side effects. According to some patients, the side effects led to blindness, and some people had constant bleeding from the nose and bleeding from the eyes and ears.

Effect

They also said side effects caused others to experience swollen stomachs. Some, they claimed, had frequent swelling of the feet, peeling skin, deformed shoulders or male genital dysfunction. Among the patients who claimed to have experienced side effects after obtaining alternative medicines is Wandile Mahalelela (41) from Tandweni, Fanenyi, Sifuo. Mahalelela claimed that he recently lost his eyesight due to the side effects of the prescribed medicines. According to the patient, he started taking anti-epileptic drugs in April 2022. He said this was after being diagnosed with the disease and that he experienced no side effects in the initial period of taking the medication. However, Mahlalela claimed that he subsequently switched to another medication – Tegretol CR 200 Norvartis – due to the ongoing shortage of medicines in the country.

According to drugs.com, Tegretal CR 200 Divitabs is an anti-epileptic drug used to treat epilepsy, which helps prevent certain types of epileptic seizures (fits). The drug is also used to treat face, head and neck pain called trigeminal neuralgia and diabetes-related nerve pain (diabetic neuropathy), the website states. The website further states that Tegretol can cause serious blood problems or a life-threatening rash or allergic reaction, and that patients should contact their doctor if they experience fever, unusual weakness, bleeding, bruising or a rash that causes blistering and peeling of the skin.

Meanwhile, Mahalela said his suffering began after taking Novartis Tegretol CR 200, which caused swelling in certain parts of his body, which made it impossible for him to walk. Mahalela then claimed that he developed blisters all over his body. He claimed that after this side effect, he started bleeding from his nostrils, ears and mouth.
He said this made him suspect there was something wrong with the medication his doctor prescribed him.

“I was taken to the State Psychiatric Referral Hospital due to bleeding in various parts of my body but was again turned away. I was then referred to Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFM) where a doctor said that the medication I was taking could be the cause of my problem,” Mahalela claimed. According to Mahlalela, the side effects persisted and he continued to bleed from various parts of his body. He said it was at this time that he was referred to the Mbabane Government Hospital for further tests. According to the patient, a doctor who attended to him at the Mbabane Government Hospital stressed that he was experiencing side effects from the anti-epileptic medication he was taking at the time.

drug

“I was not admitted despite doctors telling me that the epilepsy medication had caused complications. Then my mother took me home and started bathing me with salt. It was really bad. No one wanted to go near me because the smell was so bad and my flesh started falling off. Thank God I am still standing today,” he said. Last Wednesday, this publication spoke to Mahlalela in Bethany, who narrated his challenges. He was with his mother. The patient said he had lost his sight and scales covered his eyes, corroborating his claims.

He can also be seen with the nails of both his hands and feet falling off and black spots all over his body. After suffering from the side effects of Novartis, Mahalela said he is now taking sodium valproate and valproic acid (500 mg) to treat epileptic seizures. He said he prays that he will get his eyesight back. According to him, he will undergo surgery between September and October this year.

On the other hand, another patient who did not want to be named said he had been taking anti-epileptic drugs since 2015. The patient believes that the government has failed to ensure that they have access to healthcare so that they can continue to be productive members of society. He believes that the government has been slow in procuring their vital medicines. Last Thursday, the patient claimed that he had gone to the Mbabane Government Hospital to seek anti-epileptic drugs.

He said he had encountered the same situation when he went to a public health institution in July. The patient said he always took two different medicines every day, folic acid and Epillim. He guessed that Epillim in the public health institution had been out of stock for a while, and he did not get folic acid from the pharmacy in June. “Since I did not get Epillim, they prescribed me another medicine called sodium valproate and valproate extended-release tablets (500 mg), which can replace the medicine I am familiar with.

Buy

“I don’t know where I can get 700 euros to buy a drug that is said to be out of stock. Even when I was using Pegritory, I was sometimes told that the drug was sold out and had to be purchased. “I spent 500 to 550 euros, and as epilepsy patients we can’t afford to buy medicines from (retail) pharmacies because they are too expensive,” the patient complained. He said the downside of not having access to these drugs is that epileptic patients suffer from multiple seizures. He also claimed that some patients with underlying diseases were not warned by some medical staff about the side effects of the new drugs.

“The medical staff were inconsistent in giving us medications as they would interchange them. Some of the medical staff prescribed us medications that they thought might help stabilize the condition without consulting the doctor,” claimed one of the aggrieved patients. He claimed that he started experiencing deformities after taking alternative medications other than those prescribed by the doctor. He claimed that his male genitals were dysfunctional. He said that after discovering this, he returned to the hospital to report the new condition. “I was not satisfied with the response from the medical staff regarding the side effects of the medication. The medical staff told me that they were concerned that I was alive and not about the things I was complaining about,” the patient claimed.