Nosebleed drug could be crash saviour

Giving tranexamic acid, an anti-fibrinolytic drug used to stop nosebleeds, within three to eight hours of injury can save the life of 12,500 of the 85,000 people who bleed to death in road traffic accidents in India each year, reports a study in The Lancet.

Giving tranexamic acid, an anti-fibrinolytic drug used to stop nosebleeds, within three to eight hours of injury can save the life of 12,500 of the 85,000 people who bleed to death in road traffic accidents in India each year, reports a study in The Lancet.

Over 4,760 patients and their families from 84 hospitals across India participated in this study, which involved 20,211 accident victims across 40 countries.

Road traffic accidents — and not AIDS, cancer, malaria or any other disease — are the leading cause of death among young people between 10 and 24 years, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Of the 1.2 million road accident deaths each year, nearly 400,000 victims are under the age of 25.

“The drug is very cheap and easily available throughout the country...,” said Dr Yashbir Dewan, lead coordinator for the study.