The Ministry of Health has withdrawn the entire batch of a particular medicine after a 23-year-old woman had died due to an allergic reaction from the said medicine at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital in Ragama recently.
According to Daily Mirror, the woman who was admitted on June 27 for infection had been orally administered the antibiotic, but as she had shown no response, she was readministered the medicine in the form of a vaccine.
The woman had then developed complications due to an allergic reaction to the medicine after which she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.
Hospital Director Dr. S. Liyanage Ranaweera revealed that the patient had developed a severe allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock) and was treated at the ICU for nearly eight hours before she succumbed.
Dr. S. Liyanage Ranaweera acknowledged that there are instances in which patients develop complications due to allergic reactions to medicines and that these are isolated incidents.
However, the Ministry of Health has taken measures to withdraw the entire batch of the said medicine following the death of the young patient.
The incident comes at a time when concerns have been raised over similar deaths at other state hospitals in the country recently. (NewsWire)