Side Effects From Prescription Drugs Claim 36 Lives In Croatia

Croatian daily newspaper Novi list have reported that last year in Croatia there were 36 deaths which were the result of side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Death by medicine is slowing growing throughout the world with recent reports of deaths in the USA and France, and now prescription drugs are killing more people than illegal drugs in the USA.

Out of Croatia’s 36 cases, 2 were suicides, 2 were from poisoning and 1 reportedly was because of a fatal reaction to the prescribed medicine. It was concluded after analysis that in 19 of the cases however, the medicine was the cause of death. In 12 of the cases it was concluded that the drugs were “probably” not the direct cause of death, and in 7 cases it was considered that the association was ‘unlikely’, according to a report from the Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) on side effects in 2012.

The number of deaths as a result of side effects from prescription drugs tripled in Croatia from 2011. The report also stated that in 2012 there were 1,923 reports of side effects from pharmaceutical drugs in Croatia. Croatia, with 500 reports per million people, is 16th on the World Health Organisations list out of 110 nations.