Countywide : Fever Drug May Be Deadly, Doctor Says

County public health officials are warning parents not to use a fever-suppressing drug sold in Mexico that may have contributed to the deaths of two Orange County toddlers in the last year.

Dr. Hilde Meyers, a county epidemiologist, said the drug--known in Spanish as “neo-melubrina”--was banned in the United States in 1967 because it can cause a dangerous drop in white blood cells, which fight infections. Adverse reactions to the drug seem unrelated to the dosage or how long it is taken.

Dr. Antonio Arrieta, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, said the 2-year-olds--a boy and a girl--who died after taking the drug had Mexican parents who likely obtained the drug in Mexico. He said the boy, who was admitted to CHOC last July, was treated for a severe drop in white blood cells. It was only after the boy died, Arrieta said, that he learned his parents had given him neo-melubrina.

The girl, Arrieta said, was admitted April 3 to the CHOC/St. Joseph Hospital emergency room and sent home because she seemed well. But later in the day she took a turn for the worse and died at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana, a CHOC spokesperson said. CHOC’s staff reviewed the girl’s chart and discovered she too had been given neo-melubrina.

“What I want to communicate to the Orange County population, especially those who visit Mexico, is not to give medications that are sold in Mexico,” Arrieta said. “It may be others (who have taken neo-melubrina) have died in other hospitals for unexplained reasons.” Neo-melubrina is sold over the counter in Latin American countries, where it is as common a medication as aspirin or Tylenol, he said.