The Muslim News - Warnings against not taking medication during Ramadan.

Issue 255, Friday 30 July 2010 - 18 Sha'ban 1431

Warnings against not taking medication during Ramadan.

By Sara Asaria and Elham Asaad Buaras

Muslim communities are being warned of the dangers of canceling hospital appointments, fasting in certain phases of pregnancy and avoiding taking their medication to observe Ramadan.

Barts and the London Trust launched a campaign to stop to the problems before the start of Ramadan in August.

In 2009 the number of appointments, including vital chemotherapy sessions, attended by patients dramatically fell by 20 per cent during the month of Ramadan at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, the London Chest in Bethnal Green and St Bartholomew’s in West Smithfield.

A range of events have been organised over to encourage patients to see their GP before they make any changes to their medication.

Although fasting is obligatory for a healthy adult, Islam offers exemptions for those who are sick. “...but if anyone is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed period (should be made up) by days later. God intends every facility for you; he does not want to put you into difficulties.” (Qur’an 2:185).

In 2009, 3,151 people did not attend their appointments (in Newham University Hospital) during Ramadan, that is, 491 more than Ramadan 2008 and 2,179 more than Ramadan 2007.

Head of chaplaincy at Newham University Hospital Trust, Yunus Dudhwala, who has been working with the trust on the campaign, told The Muslim News, “As the fasts come into the summer month’s year on year, they become longer and hotter. With this in mind, it is very important for the Muslim patients to understand the exemptions for fasting within Islam.”

He explained some of the barriers faced in convincing some seriously ill patients not to skip their medication or fast: “There are many Muslim patients who feel that their illness is no excuse for them to miss the fasts, regardless of how severe their illness, this could be due to their lack of Islamic knowledge. Others feel that Allah will always support and strengthen someone who is fasting due to his zeal and commitment and there are some who feel pressured to fit in to the family.”

Writing in the Pharmaceutical Journal, Chair of Dept of Pharmaceutics, Kuwait University, Dr Saghir Akhtar, said Muslims under medications should seek “advice from pharmacists and doctors about changing prescriptions to equally effective drugs that have reduced dosing.”
American Scientists discovered health risk trends if the fasting was done early in the phase of pregnancy, and during the summer months, when long hours of daylight called for them to go longer without food.
According to Health Capital and the Prenatal Environment: the Effects of Maternal Fast during Pregnancy, published on May 1, three in 4 Muslim pregnancies overlap with Ramadan and surveys indicate that the majority of pregnant Muslims observe the fast.
Douglas Almond of Columbia University, and Bhashkar Mazumder of the Federal Research Bank of Chicago, the authors of the research, which used data from the US, Iraq and Uganda, concluded: “We generally find the largest effects on adults when Ramadan falls early in pregnancy.
“Rates of adult disability are roughly 20 per cent higher, with specific mental disabilities showing substantially larger effects. Importantly, we detect no corresponding outcome differences when the same design is applied to non-Muslims.”
Ibrahim Mogra, Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, told The Muslim News: “If a competent and reliable doctor declares that fasting will harm either the mother or baby then the woman must not fast. She can fast when she is better most likely after birth. Fasting against the doctor’s order and endangering life would be prohibited.”