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Responsible reporting: Case against acute kidney failure 'cure'
The media has a responsibility to the public in reporting medical facts accurately and in a well-structured article that avoids potential misinterpretation.
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Fomepizole is a competitive inhibitor that can treat the type of kidney failure that results only from poisoning by ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, the two harmful substances identified in contaminated cough syrup. (Unsplash/Tanaphong Toochinda)
T
hose who have been following the news must know that Indonesia has been seeing an unusually high number of cases of acute kidney injury and associated fatality among children under 5, recording 324 cases and 195 deaths as of Nov. 6, 2022.
It was suspected that these cases of acute kidney injury stem from contaminated children’s cough syrup. The Health Ministry thus recently suspended all nationwide sales of cough syrup as the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) worked to complete its investigation into the incident.
A couple of weeks ago, we began seeing news articles on confirmation of the contaminated cough syrup, the potential use of fomepizole as an antidote for acute kidney injury, and how the government was working to source the rare antidote from overseas. No less than 246 vials of fomepizole have now been acquired, 216 of which were donated from Japan and Australia and the remainder purchased from Singapore.
All was good and well.
Just a few days ago, however, several of our nonmedical contacts started asking us the most bizarre questions, such as whether “fomepizole can really cure acute kidney failure” and if they should try to purchase it for their relatives, one way or another.
We were quite shocked, and asked them to share the article from which they acquired that information. It was an article published on Kompas.com, a reputable, major news outlet, that mentioned throughout how fomepizole could “cure acute kidney failure”. Only in the last paragraph did the article mention that “10-11 patients with acute kidney failure due to poisoning from contaminated cough syrup recovered after the administration of fomepizole”.
This could potentially lead untrained readers to believe that fomepizole is a miracle drug that can cure any form of acute kidney failure, which is not true.
