New Warning Labels on Kids’ Cough Medicine Lessens Number of ER Trips

According to Reuters.com, fewer kids were admitted to emergency rooms due to issues from cough and cold medications after the medicines started rolling out new warning labels. This is from a recent government study.

Back in 2007, manufacturers of prescription cold and cough medicines decided to recall the drugs in response to statistics on emergency room visits and even deaths from young children taking this medication. The drugs were then reproduced with label warnings that more urgently warned against administering a dose to kids who are younger than four years old.

From 2004 to 2011, roughly 61,168 children younger than 12-years old were taken to the emergency room after taking cough and cold medicine. Before the recalls, studies discovered that kids younger than two who had taken this medicine made up nearly four percent of all ER trips that were the result of any drug use whatsoever. This dropped to two percent after the new warning labels.

Still, 64 percent of kids younger than two wound up in the ER from taking the medicine unsupervised; that number remains unchanged after the new labels. For kids who are two or three, taking the medicine unsupervised still accounts for 89 percent of emergency room visits related to cough and cold medication reactions.

While the label change has helped, a CDC official said that manufacturers should reconsider the design of the bottles, to reduce the number of instances when children take these medicines on accident. It would seem that the bottle design is more crucial than the warning label. Where the medicine is stored is also crucial, says a health department official, so as to keep them out of the reach of younger children.

This progress is encouraging, and one would hope that further changes are on the horizon. But the fact remains that serious harm can result from a wrongly prescribed medication or one that is administered without proper warnings. If you or a loved one have suffered from pharmacy malpractice, do not hesitate to contact a Raleigh personal injury lawyer at the Whitley Law Firm today.