'Oriental medicine pair' for diabetes is poison

Many diabetics in HCM City whispered to each other to buy "Oriental medicine pairs" for treatment. They do not know that this is actually a drug that has been banned in many countries, which can make patients comatose and die after a period of use.

(Photo: nld)

At the corner of Trieu Quang Phuc drug store - Hai Thuong Lan Ong in the Oriental medicine quarter, District 5 in Ho Chi Minh City, when looking at the sample bottle in the client's hand, the seller pulled from the two small bottles of medicine and sold for VND 15,000. .

At a drug store on Luong Nhu Hoc Street, things are easier. Just by asking 'medicine for diabetes', the sales girl immediately held a pack of medicine and quickly replied: 'Buy as many as you want, buy 10,000 VND / pair, buy lots of discounts'. Seeing the guest looking at the medicine bottle seemed suspicious, she affirmed: 'Oriental medicine imported from China, well, taking 2 capsules every day is out of illness!'.

Not only HCMC but also in provinces such as Dong Nai, Long An, Tien Giang ., the sale of 'Oriental medicine' is very popular. At a traditional medicine store on Nguyen Hue Street, My Tho City, after carefully asking who to buy for and who recommended it to buy, the lady took the medicine and said, 'Take this medicine and eat sugar and substance. fat'. When customers asked to buy large quantities, she said: 'Thousands of boxes are available, but one day must be advised . ' Almost all Oriental medicine pharmacies in Tien Giang sell this medicine, as easy as buying candy.

Professor Mai The Trach, Vice President of Endocrinology - Diabetes, said it was called a "Oriental medicine pair" because the drug was sold in pairs, consisting of two jars, one containing glibenclamide, and the other containing phenformin. Drug packaging printed in Chinese. Phenformin has been banned from circulation abroad for a long time, killing dozens of people. Using it for a long time, patients may have kidney failure and coma due to lactic acidosis.

Dr. Diep Thi Thanh Binh, Head of Internal Medicine Hospital of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said that the above poisoning situation happened silently, there was no expression outside, at some point when the outbreak became hand is not up. For patients with pre-existing renal failure, taking phenformin will make kidney failure faster. Dr. Binh witnessed several cases of coma because of the use of 'Oriental medicine'. No one has yet statistics on how many people died from taking phenformin in Vietnam, because when a diabetic is delirious in an emergency, doctors often care about the cure rather than finding the underlying cause. But one thing is certain, the risk of dying from phenformin is real, and the United States has eliminated it since 1977.

Doctor Nguyen Duc An, Chief Inspector of the HCM City Department of Health, admits that there is a situation of buying and selling 'Oriental medicine' for diabetes in the area and this drug is very dangerous, but blocking is very difficult. Drugs taken from the Chinese border, must be controlled from here to be feasible. In the past few years, the inspector also caught a number of traditional Chinese pharmacies that sold phenformin, but then they did not go there because of the lack of coordination among departments. On the other hand, the drug is too cheap, the patient easily accepts: 10,000 VND / 2 vials, calculated to use . 200 coins of medicine, only 1/30 compared with the current diabetes medicine. now on.