Brian
Deer: Bactrim
- a secret epidemic
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An
investigation by Brian
Deer
for The Sunday Times of
London over
risks from the antibiotic
known as Bactrim,
Septra, Septrin,
smz-tmp, Sulfatrim,
co-trimoxazole and
many other brand and
generic names |
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| Toll of
suffering:
The first reports in the newspaper series
exposed deaths and injuries in the UK,
kept hidden for decades, caused by the antibiotic
known most commonly as Bactrim,
Septra, Septrin,
Apo-Sulfatrim, SMZ-TMP
and co-trimoxazole, but
with many other names worldwide. The
opening story appeared on page 1 of The
Sunday Times of London way back in
February 1994 |
| The pill
that killed: One
of the first responses to Brian Deer's
initial stories was an approach from the mother
of 18-year-old Justine Gibbs,
whose horrifying death,
caused by Septrin, formed the core for
the feature at this link about
trimethoprim - sulfamethoxazole's
potential side-effects. The Sunday Times,
March 20 1994 |
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One
woman's fight:
In the following year, three support
groups were formed in the United Kingdom
to campaign for urgent
action against Bactrim - Septra - Septrin
- Septran. One was run by Kate
Reid, (pictured left), an east
London secretary, whose alarming
experience was reported in The Sunday
Times Magazine, July 9 1995 |
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Small
victory: Aware of
the impending magazine report on Kate
Reid (left), the British
government abruptly altered the
drug's official prescribing
indications, as reported in the
newspaper on Sunday July 9 1995. But in
the rest of the world little changed. The
worldwide web is today loaded with sites
recommending the product |
Current
problems:
Since 2002, this site
has collected emails
from visitors. You can browse by date,
following links on each page, or search the
site. To
search, insert eg "Bactrim" and
keyword(s). [1]
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Suffering
in secrecy:
In response to stories in the newspaper,
hundreds of harrowing letters
and phone calls were
received from people who said they
believed that they or a family member was
a victim of the drug's side-effects. This
cross-section of only
six letters has been picked, showing the
range of complaints then leveled against
the antibiotic. More followed in emails
to this site
Side-effects
summary: A brief
digest of risks and potential problems of
Bactrim from PDRhealth, a
consumer service of the Physician's Desk
Reference. For more information, browse
the links on this page, or interrogate
this site with the search feature below.
Remember that Bactrim DS,
Septra, Septrin,
Sulfatrim, SMZ-TMP,
co-trimoxazole etc, are
all the same drug |
| Brian
Deer's Sunday Times investigation which
saw routine Bactrim Septra prescribing
banned in the UK |
| A
doctor writes:
Having prescribed a
needlessly-dangerous
pharmaceutical for most of their
professional careers, many
British family doctors were
outraged by the challenge over
Bactrim - Septrin - Septra -
Septran. Many felt their patients
were alarmed unfairly
by Brian Deer's reports -
stressing side-effects, rather
than typical patients'
experiences. This link includes
letters from some, who frankly
couldn't believe what they were
reading. In due course, they
changed their minds |
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clients were appalled:
After Brian Deer's first Sunday
Times story, way back in 1994, lawyers
for Wellcome
plc, manufacturer of
Septrin in the UK, fired off
warning letters, implying that
the company was thinking of suing
the newspaper and its reporter
over the page 1 investigation.
They also argued that the drug's
broad-spectrum of therapeutic benefits
outweighed possible risks. By
2005, however, prescriptions in
the UK had slumped to a few
thousand annually - unlike in the
USA |
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Hard sell:
The Bactrim - Septrin - Septra -
SMZ - TMP investigation sprang
from Brian Deer's inquiries for The
Sunday Times into the extraordinary
Wellcome organization, a
part-drug-company-part-charity, which was
broken up after the campaign. Here's also
a memo on founder Henry Wellcome, the
American-born founder of one of the first
major pharmaceutical empires, who died in
1936
Wellcome's
world: Septrin
was the foundation upon which the
Wellcome organization rose. But, as this
chart from The Sunday Times reveals, a
research funding money-go-round may have
led regulators and
experts on side-effects to give it an
easy ride. Specialists and researchers
who promoted Wellcome drugs often thought
they might be helped financially by the
Wellcome charity |
| How the
campaign slashed needless deaths and
injuries from Bactrim, Septrin, Septra,
co-trimoxazole |
Chronology
of a campaign:
After the first Sunday Times reports,
apparent victims of the drug's side
effects who contacted the paper were
interviewed by Brian Deer on a standard
format, and campaigning groups were
founded - at arm's length. This short
chronology summarises the campaign and
includes links to pages with the initial
questionnaire form and other early
documents
By any
other name: The
British campaign focused on the dominant
brands in the UK - Septrin
and Bactrim. But the drug's
contents - a combination of sulfamethoxazole (from Roche) and trimethoprim (from Wellcome) -
is marketed worldwide in dozens of
guises, causing confusion for those who
wish to avoid these chemicals, and
further obscuring the casualties from
their side-effects
A Commons
touch: As the
campaign gathered strength, a parliamentary
debate was held in 1995, at
which then-opposition Labour Party
members pressed the then-Conservative
government for action over the evidence
of needless deaths and injuries. A minister
wrongly claimed that rival
antibiotics were no safer than
Septrin, but government drug regulators
eventually saw sense
UK use
restricted:
After bitter resistance from the
pharmaceutical industry and its friends
among regulators, senior doctors forced changes
to the product's UK data sheet,
implictly acknowledging the campaign's
claim that the risk-benefit profile was
skewed. They said the drug should be
restricted to Aids and special situations. Use of Septrin-
Bactrim-Septra etc collapsed in the UK
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| Contact
Brian at this link: Visitors
often offer vital information for this
and other investigations. Please feel
free to email Brian Deer
with your suggestions, comments and
ideas. If you plan to quote from this
site, please acknowledge, and check the copyright notice. Links to this
site are appreciated, and may further an
issue of great public importance: the
safety of prescription drugs |
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From
emails here on Bactrim
and Septra
"I believe the
information on your site
saved my life" - JG
"Obviously, you are
a "David"
fighting Goliath for all
of us who have been
victims of the drug,
Sulfamethoxazole" - Carol
"My husband and I
are so very thankful to
you" - MB
"Thank you for the
invaluable info on this
site... and letting me
know that I'm not
alone" - JW
"This is my second
time writing on this
site. I posted last year
when i found out that my
now 2-year-old son had a
side effect to Bactrim.
We now know that he has
suffered
neurologically" - RC
"Thank you so much
for this site, it just
may have saved my
daughter's life" - DC
"Your website more
or less saved my life...
Thanks and God Bless your
website" - KS
"I happened upon
your website after my
12-year-old son ended up
in the hospital" - LF
"I am very grateful
for your website and I
will definitely educate
myself and research any
prescription that is
given to me in the
future" - Kristal
"Fourteen years
after my reaction, I
finally find your
website" - MC
"I decided to do
some research on Bactrim
and found your website. I
absolutely can not
believe they are still
able to prescribe this
drug" - DB
"Congrats on not
only your articulate and
effective article, but
also on the courage
you've shown by producing
it" - Sherry
"I want to thank you
so much for having this
site, you may, and all
share their stories, have
helped my baby from
long-term damage" - Chase's
mommy
"I am so glad to
have found your
website" - BK
"Thanks for putting
this site out
here....great resource
for those wanting to
learn more about the
"real" effects
of this drug" - Willie
"I didn't realize
there were so many others
that had reactions from
this drug" - BG
"Thank you for your
website. I really thought
I was going crazy until I
saw other stories" -
Annie
"The Bactrim fiasco
makes you wonder about
the fragility of the
human race, but nothing
much surprises me anymore
as greed and power
supersedes common
sense" - RS
"All I can say is
THANK GOD I went on line
and found your web
site" - BB
"Thank you for your
e-mail page on septra,
after reading them my
husband knew what was
wrong with him" - Marjorie
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