Kidney failure and cancer: a regulatory disaster

However the defendant, Ying ‘Susan’ Wu, has pleaded guilty to selling a banned substance.

The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health has repeatedly warned that failing to introduce statutory regulation for herbal medicine, including Chinese medicine, was a disaster in the making.

It has already been a disaster for the patient in this case. Mrs Patricia Booth, had taken pills supplied by a Chinese herbal medicine shop that contained an ingredient which is toxic to the kidneys.

Mrs Booth went on to develop kidney failure and cancer, both allegedly caused by the pills. She remains so seriously ill that she was not able to attend the trial and has been giving evidence via a video link.

Foundation medical director Dr Michael Dixon said:

'This tragic case illustrates the danger to the public of ignoring the need for statutory regulation of herbalists and practitioners of Chinese medicine.  Our hearts go out to Mrs Booth and her family.

'The shop advertised its remedies as ‘safe and natural’. Members of the public were naturally likely to believe that was true. Even the defendant may have believed it was true. Without regulation, there is no requirement for training or expertise. Anyone can call themselves a herbalist and gain access to powerful – even toxic – herbal medicines. That is outrageous.

'Three Department of Health Steering Groups, as well as the highly respected House of Lords Science and Technology Committee and many expert bodies, have all recommended statutory regulation.

'The Government is failing the public if it does not act now to implement those recommendations.'

Ms Wu initially denied the charges against her, but subsequently pleaded guilty to selling prescription only medicines without authorisation and to selling a banned substance. She is due to be sentenced later.

 

ENDS

 

Notes to editors:

 

1.     For media enquiries and for interviews with Dr Dixon, contact Pat Goodall, 01246 410707, 07789 871234, pat.goodall@fih.org.uk

 

2.     All other enquiries, please get in touch with contactus@fih.org.uk

3.     The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1993. Its principal aim is to make sure that everyone can access good integrated healthcare. More information about the Foundation can be found at www.fih.org.uk

 

4.     The herb aristolochia fangchi contains aristolochic acid which is highly toxic to the kidneys. It was banned in the UK in 1999. Previously it could be provided only on prescription by a medically qualified doctor.

 

5.     In 2000, the respected House of Lords Select Committee for Science and Technology published a report into complementary and alternative medicine that recommended the statutory regulation of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture. In 2001 the Government said it accepted these recommendations. Following a Steering Group report and a public consultation which found overwhelming support for regulation, the Government repeated its commitment to statutory regulation and published a timetable that would have seen it implemented by the end of 2005. In the event, no action was taken. Later another Steering Group was set up, chaired by the late Professor Michael Pittilo, Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, who died this week. This reported in 2008. A second public consultation took place in the autumn of 2009 but has yet to report.

 

6.     Research by Ipsos Mori for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), published January 2008, found that a quarter of the UK population use over the counter herbal medicines while millions of Britons visit practitioners.