PSoTD

Just a horrible thing to do.

HIV positive patients in Zimbabwe face more risks amid reports that unlicensed drug dealers are flooding the market with counterfeit ARVs that could do more harm than good to the health of consumers.

The country’s medicines regulatory body has warned that patients on ARVs should avoid buying the drugs from the parallel market were the drugs are cheaper but also fake. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) said this week that individual drug importers had flooded the local market with cheap counterfeit ARVs, which they are selling from unlicensed locations such as flea markets and hair salons.

MCAZ fears the drugs could expose HIV positive people to health hazards as counterfeit medicines usually cause drug resistance.

“This is a dangerous practice because the medicines may have been subjected to inappropriate and hazardous storage conditions, thus affecting the quality and effectiveness of the medicine.

“Such medicines may be counterfeited, adulterated and contaminated, thus rendering them ineffective and sometimes dangerous”, said the MCAZ in a statement.

Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said his Ministry was fighting to stamp out the unauthorised drugs market, estimated to be worth billions.

“We are aware that people may want to make capital out of it especially in light of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,” said Parirenyatwa.

Medical experts say the collapse of the government health system has created a vacuum in which a parallel market for drugs has thrived. They warned that un-prescribed ARVs would result in drug resistance.

Sixty-two thousand HIV–positive people are on the government’s treatment programme, but this figure is expected to double by the end of this year.

But over 700 000 Zimbabweans are estimated to be in urgent need of ARV therapy.

If you're flying with young kids to different states, and you're not taking your kids' car seat/booster with you, this chart might come in handy in determining the law for where you're going - although simply following the locality's law to the letter isn't necessarily the safest thing for your children. It's surprising how much difference there is in the law from state to state on this child safety issue.

Was there something hinky about that blue plate special you just picked through at lunch? Find out your chances of keeping it down at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's website. They have a searchable database of food safety inspection results and compliance statuses for eating establishments throughout the state.

Browse for violations at your favorite restaurants or zero in on the joints to avoid. Bon appetit!

Decide what you're having for lunch yet?

No way I'm eating one of these but this guy tried to. You could clog an artery just looking at it. Put me down for Chinese!

I think we've all seen it.

If you knew how much in the way of goodies was plied into medical offices by pharmaceutical reps in this country every day, you'd be appalled.

It’s no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry is appalled at proposals to set up a national registry of its gifts and payments to doctors. Too much information might lead patients to suspect that their doctors are choosing costly medicines out of gratitude to the manufacturers rather than for the best medical or economic interests of their patients.

The drug companies ply doctors with a wide range of gifts, everything from free lunches for busy doctors and their staffs while sales representatives extol the virtues of their latest drugs to subsidized trips to vacation spots for conferences billed as educational events. The companies also pay large sums to doctors for consulting or for conducting research. These payments, which can mount into the hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of years, look suspiciously like inducements to promote or prescribe the companies’ drugs.

(Hat tip: Susie)