Toronto-Every year, thousands of Canadians suffer from adverse drug reactions, which is intended to save their lives and make them better, but it will make them worse.

Proponents say this is the leading cause of death in Canada, and new rules for monitoring side effects, tracking reactions and implementing solutions are being promoted to minimize these potentially life-threatening reactions.

Mike Sawatsky suffers from kidney disease, but his father, husband and avid outdoor activists are all healthy. In 2013, he received the approved monoclonal antibody therapy rituximab to treat his kidney disease. However, his body did not improve. Instead, he reacted to the drug, which severely damaged his short-term memory function and made him permanently disabled.

Savatsky said that his throat felt swollen and the temperature rose, but the effect on the brain was worse. The inflammation gradually worsened over several months, until the symptoms became unbearable. His memory has become so short, it feels like he is living in the present.

“I’m losing words, I can’t come up with the words I know. I forgot how to spell it… the punctuation completely disappeared. And it lasted for about three years,” he was at his home in Whitehorse, Yukon. Said.

“My thoughts are inconsistent. Everything is broken…. The broken thoughts and vocabulary began to increase, and I couldn’t even discuss anything with Crystal.”

Crystal is the wife of Sawatsky. She witnessed her husband becoming a completely different person after receiving treatment.

“This completely changed our lives because we are active outdoor people. We have children, we have many friends, and we are very social. She said: “We became reclusive. “They stopped many previous social and outdoor activities and sold huts on the lake.

To make matters worse, Savaski has been in the health care system to no avail, seeing countless experts trying to get someone to admit what happened and get the correct diagnosis.

I don’t know what’s wrong with him, the doctor will prescribe more medicine.

“I’m like, look, I’m eliminated. I don’t need drugs anymore,” he said. “No one will accept the fact that this is an adverse drug reaction.”

Savaski knew whether he would continue down that path, and it would not last long. He said that after two and a half years, his nephrologist finally attributed his condition to adverse drug reactions.

Savaski said that he suffered from myositis encephalomyelitis caused by a drug reaction. To this day, he is still in a disabled state, and because the doctor cannot help him regain his strength, he has to rely on his wife.

According to data from the Health Canada website, Health Canada received more than 96,500 domestic adverse reaction reports in 2019, involving more than 208,000 drugs and natural health products. The Vancouver national support and advocacy organization ADR Canada (ADR Canada) estimates that there are 200,000 serious adverse drug reactions in Canada each year, which can kill up to 22,000 Canadians.

Amani Saini founded the charity after her sister had a serious reaction to ibuprofen in 2010. She suspects that these estimates are inaccurate and the actual numbers may be higher because of the online database of adverse reactions. The Canadian Vigilance Program relies on a voluntary reporting system, which means that not all adverse drug reactions are recorded or tracked.

Changing regulations to make reporting mandatory is one of the main goals of the organization. A law came into effect in 2019 that requires hospitals to report serious adverse drug reactions and medical device incidents to Health Canada within 30 days of recording. Seni said this is the first step, but it is far from enough. She used a long-term care home as an example. The report is not needed but should report the incident.

She said: “We have seen so many Canadians suffering… People are living longer and affecting their organs. This is preventable, and we have not done enough.”

Seni’s sister almost died after taking ibuprofen, which was provided by an outpatient clinic where she often had colds. She suffered from a skin disease called toxic epidermal necrosis, which is a rare and life-threatening skin disease, usually caused by an adverse reaction to the drug. This condition can cause severe skin peeling and blisters, which progress very quickly. Seni said her sister spent three weeks in the burn plastic trauma ward and then in the intensive care unit. The family was told that she was unlikely to survive.

“We are really lucky, she finally recovered from this experience. To this day, although ten years have passed, she still has problems with her eyes.” Saini said.

Sarni said that one solution that has been adopted in places such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan is to conduct genetic testing on patients. Health professionals will use the person’s genetic characteristics to help determine the most effective and correct medications and medication dosages, as well as help avoid potentially dangerous medication reactions.

She believes that pharmacological genetic screening can look at how a person’s genetic makeup determines their response to drugs, which may prevent her sister from developing a fatal skin disease.

This type of screening is not new. A 2010 case study published in CMAJ documented how genotyping can play a role in helping to identify patients at risk of potentially fatal adverse drug reactions. This is an evolving field of research. In recent years, there has been increasing pressure to incorporate genetic testing into decision-making around drug prescriptions. Canadian ADR hopes to see publicly funded genetic testing to identify genetic variants that may cause adverse drug reactions.

“Genetic testing is very different in preventing serious reactions, and this response is the end result that people encounter in the intensive care unit. We can perform genetic testing on many of these genes and greatly reduce them, frankly , I think it’s easy to do,” said Dr. Neil Hill, head of dermatology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto. His research focuses on severe drug reactions and how to help patients with severe skin diseases.

He added that doctors should pay close attention to specific side effects early.

However, all these potential solutions are too late for Mike Sawatsky. Since his health is still declining, he applied for and was approved to receive medical assistance for the death, which will enable him to end his suffering at the time of his choice.