2024-03-28 06:32:36
“I was treated from July 20 to July 30, 2021 and I’m biting my fingers. I trusted my doctor and he didn’t do his job. » Philippe Coville, 60, is one of 41 victims of serious side effects from fluoroquinolone class antibiotics. This Wednesday, an investigation was opened for involuntary homicide and deception by the Paris prosecutor’s office, as revealed by RMC. It follows around forty complaints of adverse effects linked to taking fluoroquinolones. This is the first legal proceeding concerning this class of antibiotics in France.
In 2021, the antibiotics in question were prescribed to Philippe Coville for a simple urinary infection (without prostate involvement). However, since 2019, health authorities have restricted its prescription to severe infections, due to serious adverse effects. “I had difficulty walking for a year and a half and I have peripheral neuropathies, it is extremely painful and I can no longer sleep at night,” testifies the man who became president of the association of help and information on the harmful effects of fluoroquinolones.
” It was too late “
“After ten days (of treatment) my legs hurt a lot, I read the instructions and I realized that there was a problem,” says Philippe Coville. So on vacation, a doctor advised him to drink lots of water but “it was too late,” he said. When, at the end of August, he returned to see his GP (who prescribed the antibiotics in question), he was provided with the ANSM restriction of use document and questioned him about the reason for this prescription, even though his infection was trivial. “’It doesn’t exist,’ he replied. “I’ve been prescribing it for thirty years and I’ve never had any problems.” This will remain engraved in my memory. »
On his own and at the end of his career, Philippe Coville was lucky enough to be able to put his professional activity on hold for a while to take care of himself. He also devotes a lot of his time to the association. This brings together 650 people affected by serious adverse effects. But it estimates, on the basis of two million prescriptions per year in France, that there would be around 20,000 cases of serious adverse effects and 2,000 very serious ones (with permanent damage) per year. “I have collected 300 to 400 testimonies from which it appears that the medical system has been organized for thirty years to lie to patients in order not to take responsibility for these adverse effects, it is very serious,” denounces Philippe Coville.
“I wish I knew”
The association requests, in the event of prescription of these fluoroquinolone antibiotics, “a certificate of shared information” signed by the doctor as well as a check by the pharmacist. The idea is to change the prescribing habits of these medications, which are essential for certain serious infections but whose use should be restricted in the case of light or moderate infections. “It is prescribed between two doors without warning the patient even though the consequences can be serious,” protests the president of the association.
“I would have liked to know and, properly informed of the risks, I would not have taken them,” he assures. There were fifteen other antibiotics including amoxicillin as an alternative. » At the time, he was 58 years old and in perfect health. Today, even if his musculoskeletal recovery is good, his general health is deteriorating. “I have been on painkillers for four months and I am on antiepileptic medication for the neuropathies, which are only getting worse,” he worries.
The main damage noted among victims, linked to taking these antibiotics, concerns the tendons, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems. “Almost no French doctor agrees to take into consideration the toxicity of these drugs,” warns Philippe Coville, “there is a huge hole in the racket for the care of victims. » He hopes that the legal aspect, which is only just beginning, can advance patients’ rights.
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