Session Speaker

Cough and Cold Preparations in UAE basic facts and new regulation trends
Yasser Sharif
UAE

Background: In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), many of the cough and cold medications are available over-the- counter OTC, which are easily accessible by patients without the need of a physician's prescription. Cough and cold medication usually contain one or more of the following active ingredients: decongestants, antihistamines, cough expectorants, cough sedatives and mucolytics, which carry high potential risk for a patient to have an overdose, especially if he administers more than one cough and cold medication concurrently for the same affliction.

There are a wide variety of cough and cold medications available in the UAE that are produced by different pharmaceutical companies that are based at different countries. This plethora of medications has created a non-standardized treatment modality. One can understand the reason for these differences is due to different regulations by different regulatory bodies at different countries from which these medications came from. These differences can create a great deal of confusion for the physician, the pharmacist and the patient.

HAAD Poison and Drug Information Center took the initiative to conduct a comprehensive survey of all cough and cold products regarding appropriateness of the package (outer and inner), correctness of the information on labels and safety of ingredients, in order to identify those products with potential risks on public health -and consequently take the appropriate action.

This presentation has been composed in a very practical way to create a better understanding among healthcare professionals about the safety profile of the ingredients in OTC cough and cold, toxidromes arising from overdose, recent regulatory changes and to discuss the findings of HAAD cough and cold survey.

Objectives: After attending this presentation, attendees will be able to;

1. Determine the benefits and safety profile for cough and cold preparations use in children

2. Recognize and differentiate between toxidromes arising from cough and cold preparations overdose.

3. Determine current national and world regulatory status for OTC cough and cold preparations.

4. Discuss the major findings of HAAD's cough and cold survey

5. Review HAADs proposed recommendations and guidelines to regulate cough and cold preparations.

Target Audience: The target audiences of this presentation are health care professionals who are working at community hospitals, clinical and drug information settings.