From left to right and top to bottom: Maria Pombo, Marta Carriedo, Ana Moya, J. Muchelas, Marta Soriano and Paula Gonu.
The demand of Eridosis, a few wipes, anti-acne, grew disproportionately in pharmacies Spanish a few months ago, as detected by the General Council of Colleges of Pharmacists (CGCF) through the consultation of numerous apothecaries. It was the immediate reaction to several videos from several influencersde social networks that add up to hundreds of thousands of followers, and that they had recommended this remedy. The problem is that this medication is an antibiotic that requires a prescription, your advertising to the public at large is strictly forbidden by the law, and their indiscriminate use can create health problems.
it is Not only medicine that is recommended on the Internet as if it were a book or a perfume. The pharmacist Guillermo Martín Melgar had time seeing how several of these leaders of opinion, especially in the world of fashion and style of life, advised his followers remedies which should be prescribed by health personnel. Last September began to collect on his Twitter account all that was, and the list does not stop growing with this and other drugs: Mupirocin, an ointment that is used to infections; Acyclovir, an antiviral against certain herpes; guidelines on how to take Frenadol so that it does not interfere with sleep; Dercutane, another treatment against acne,…
The Ministry of Health has already taken action in the matter. Before the denunciation of the CGCF, proceeded to examiar the content available. In principle, it has focused on Youtube, which was the first platform of the received complaints. They were looking for the promotion of medicines for human use authorised in Spain carried out by third parties other than the pharmaceutical laboratories that market them. “Confirmed the illegality of these advertising activities, not to conform to the requirements set out in Royal Decree 1416/1994, of 25 June, by which regulates the advertising of medicines for human use […] it took to the platform immediately to the receipt of the communication to proceed to the withdrawal of the contents or to make it impossible to access,” says a spokesman of Health, which clarifies that it is a “general requirement”, initially we have not identified any particular video.
MORE INFORMATION
Dear ‘influencer’, this is not a cosmetic, it is an antibiotic of The fiasco of the ‘influencers’ with hordes of followers
At the end of December, Google (which owns Youtube) replied showing his willingness to cooperate with the authorities in the removal of content that infringes the law. But, as explained by the company to this newspaper, this will happen when you get specific links, after examine them one by one and see which violate the terms and conditions of the platform.
Youtube is not the only site where you promote this content. In fact, according to Martin Melgar, where it is found is on Instagram. The Ministry ensures that it will work in the removal of the videos in any social network, and is collaborating with the Councils of the Colleges of Physicians and Pharmacists to tackle the problem. These proposed sessions that consider content to withdraw and that will help raising the awareness of citizens and companies.
“With Mupirocin I was in two days the infection [in the ear] and pellet very fat […] What is more whether it is with prescription has worked for me. It is as if I have angina and my doctor sent a prescription drug, so obviously I’m going to say if there is one that I run worse than another. In the end, more of the same. I pass these shits, they give me exactly the same”, said the instagramer Marta Carriedo in a video concerning the criticism by recommending drugs.
Many of the videos of the influencers, as the previous, are not already available in the networks where promoted, either because they have retired or because they are ephemera that disappear after a few hours in line.
Ana López Castedo, the CGCF, explains that the root of the problem is “ignorance” of citizenship and “banality” that the population gives gives to the medication. “Many people think that it is a product of consumption, like clothing or a disk, but it is not that, it is a good health. We don’t want to criminalize these influencers, so be sure to do so with good will, but the rules to promote a drug are very strict and should be followed also in the new channels,” he claimed.
advertising of prescription drugs is prohibited. And the other is subject to strict rules: it has to indicate, for example, that it is a drug and that in case of doubt consult with a physician or pharmacist. It is not something that happens with the recommendations of the influencers.
Although the professionals consulted claim that, in general, drugs that promote these creators of trends tend not to be very serious for the individual health, the misuse of antibiotics can promote microbial resistance, a problem of public health that is concerned greatly to the international community. The misuse of antibiotics favors their resistance against the bacteria, which harms in the long run to the person who uses them indiscriminately, as they will no longer be effective and, more generally, to the population, because the drugs may lose effectiveness.
“we’re allocating a lot of money on campaigns and resources to raise awareness among the population that make a good use of antibiotics, only when needed and in adequate doses. With videos like these, that are hundreds of thousands of people, the effort may be in vain,” he laments López Castedo. The forecast of the World Health Organization is that the microbial resistance will cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050, more than cancer.
Woman, young, senior beauty and fashion
All of the influencers that have been detected in both CGCF as Guillermo Martín Melgar respond to the same pattern: they are young women creative content related to fashion. “Are bloggers who recommend everything from clothes to cream, through medicines, usually for beauty,” says Martin Melgar.
“One of the problems is that it does not accept the criticism of professionals. We answer insulting or blocking. I have come to say that I have no idea, they speak of what they want or that pharmacists are gangsters,” says this professional. The same opinion Lorea Bagazgoitia, of the Academy of Dermatology: “once you were detected the videos we try to fix it, but we find answers superb”.
THE COUNTRY has tried to contact the implicadas in some of these polemics without receiving a response.
Some recommended medications
Mupirocin . It is used to treat superficial infections of the skin such as impetigo, folliculitis and furunculosis. The influencer Marta Carriedo, with more than half a million followers on Instagram, the recommended for a yeast infection in the ear, sparking a great controversy among healthcare professionals in social networks.
Homeopathy . The same instagramer was the center of new discussions in the networks after this comment in a video: “I’m recovering from the cold that I had the flu. In the end the only thing I have done is to take a few envelopes that he had found at Whole Foods Market in the part of Homeopathy and balls tiny because I don’t like to take antibiotics”.
Eridosis . Are wipes impregnated in Erythromycin, an antibiotic used in the treatment against acne. Several influencers of fashion with hundreds of thousands of followers (Mary Pombo, Paula Gonu, Carla Wonderland, among others) have recommended against pimples or blackheads. “It’s for when you have a grain like that I had. I tried a billion things, and when I tried this, the next day was dry,” he said in a video Pombo, with around 1.5 million followers on their networks. Lorea Bagazgoitia, of the Academy of Dermatology explains that it is an insufficient treatment against acne if you are isolated and that is not indicated for use in “indiscriminate”, but that has to go backed by a professional. “It has made a lot of noise in the networks, but even that is too effective,” he says.
Dercutane . It is a treatment against acne “very effective, but that requires medical supervision,” explains Bagazgoitia, Carla Barber, a doctor with more than 200,000 followers, I have recommended it in a video “for the skin is good and bright and younger.”
Frenadol . Ana Moya, with more than 300,000 followers had decided their followers Frenadol “only by the night” by being “stronger than the Orfidal”.
