26-year-old pregnant woman in Dziarzhynsk died due to a Belarusian antibiotic that had been previously banned — because several women died from it

The photo is for illustrative purposes. Source: prostooleh on Freepik.com

Recall that on March 8, a 26-year-old pregnant woman died in Dziarzhynsk Central District Hospital; medics were also unable to save her child. Initially, a colleague of the deceased reported the tragedy on Threads.

Павялічыць

The woman reported that the expectant mother was approximately 34 weeks pregnant, and her waters broke on March 8. An ambulance took the pregnant woman to the maternity hospital, but medics could not help the young woman and her unborn child.

The chief doctor of Dziarzhynsk Central District Hospital, Alena Padalianchyk, gave a brief comment to "Onliner": «For now, I'll just say: the medics did everything they could. I say this with full responsibility: everything they could.»

So what happened? In the same Threads post, a colleague claimed that anaphylactic shock was the cause of death.

Павялічыць

This information was also confirmed by "Nasha Niva" sources. According to people familiar with the situation, the woman was administered the antibiotic ceftriaxone.

This very antibiotic had been involved in a scandal before. In January 2017, within just one week, three cases of anaphylactic shock from ceftriaxone were recorded: two schoolchildren were hospitalized in serious condition, and one woman died. In these cases, both domestic and foreign preparations were used.

After the fatal incident, ceftriaxone was temporarily banned in Belarus. Then Vice-Premier Vasily Zharko stated that in 2016, 25 cases of allergic reactions to this antibiotic – of Belarusian, Russian, and Polish production – were recorded in the country.

Among those 25 cases, most remained unknown to the public. Only the death of an expectant mother in Maladziechna became resonant. Then 27-year-old Katsiaryna gave birth to a healthy son, but after some time, she felt unwell. Medics administered Belarusian ceftriaxone to the woman — and she died from anaphylactic shock.

Павялічыць

Six months before Katsiaryna, another woman died in the same Maladziechna maternity hospital. The cause was also anaphylactic shock after the administered antibiotic.

However, Vasily Zharko tried to reassure that more allergic reactions to ceftriaxone are recorded abroad.

It should be noted that problems with ceftriaxone indeed arose not only in Belarus. For example, in Ukraine, this antibiotic (of Ukrainian production) was banned in 2019 — also after a fatal case.

As a result, ceftriaxone was ultimately allowed again for use in Belarus — this happened in March 2017.

Nasha Niva's interlocutors believe that in the case of the 26-year-old pregnant woman in Dziarzhynsk, the doctors are indeed not to blame, as no one is immune to an allergic reaction. However, they do not understand why ceftriaxone continues to be used in Belarus, given that severe reactions to it are not uncommon.

Speaking of official statistics, we can only rely on the official data from 2016. Zharko reported that in that year, 254 allergic reactions were recorded in Belarus, 25 of which were to ceftriaxone. This means that one in ten patients faced a life-threatening situation specifically due to this antibiotic.

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