PHARMA LITERATI

When you last visited your doctor for a stomach infection, did your doctor warn you about the possible side-effects of the prescribed antibiotic, or was there a ` medication guide' in the pack to alert you? Probably not. When 10-year-old Ruchi was prescribed a widely sold antibiotic -ciprofloxacin -for her ENT infection, neither did her doctor inform her parents about the complications, nor was a medication guide available. The pharma company which manufactures the antibiotic too abdicated its responsibility to list possible side-effects. So when Ruchi took the medicine for 15 days, she developed serious skeletal deformities. The antibiotic meant to cure her nearly crippled her. Ruchi is not alone. There are numerous instances of patients suffering serious side-effects after taking prescribed medications, as they were unaware of the drug's possible adverse reaction . So are patients here being given the short shrift? It appears to be the case, as companies in In...

If you have frequently been giving your child paracetamol (liquid or tablets) whenever he/she is down with fever, you might want to cut down on your go-to remedy. That’s because the harmless seeming paracetamol when given in excess could give rise to bigger health problems. Health warning Doctors in the UK have warned that parents are putting their children’s health at risk by giving them paracetamol too readily. Professor Alastair Sutcliffe, specialising in general paediatrics at University College London, said, “Parents are using paracetamol too permissively. They seem to fear fever as an illness per se, which it is not. There is evidence that the excess usage of paracetamol is associated with increased rates of asthma, increased rates of liver damage — but [also] less widely known, kidney and heart damage .” Other experts pointed that children were being given more than the recommended dose by those taking care of them. who didn’t know how much they’d had earlier th...