Tuesday, 24 December 2002  
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Tracking-down harmful drugs

The demand for medicinal drugs of various kinds and categories has never been so great in this country. This is mainly attributable to a sharp decline in the health condition of the general public following a steady deterioration in their living standards coupled with rising stress and tension in daily living.

It could be said that the stress factor cuts across all social barriers, although not so long ago only the so-called leisure classes were prone to the more sedentary illnesses, such as heart disease, high-blood pressure and diabetes. Today, even some members of the working class and lower middle class are affected by these "illnesses of the rich". We could surmise that this trend has its roots in the intensifying struggle for survival and in lifestyle changes which involve a relatively high intake of junk food and highly sweetened, superfluous beverages.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that medical services are very much in demand and that the general public is exposed to an avalanche of medical drugs. Our front page news report yesterday on a program being conducted to track down the ill-effects of drugs by the Colombo Medical Faculty Drug Monitoring Unit, named a plethora of such drugs which have penetrated the local market recently, most of which very few members of the public, except medical doctors and pharmacists, may have heard of. The long list of mostly unpronounceable brand names tell the now familiar sad story of prescription practices which by-pass generic names of drugs and seize on the more fanciful brand names - roxithoromycin, clarithromycin, sumatriptan, lovastatin, etc. The list is long and wearying.

It shouldn't come as a surprise if these drugs have a multiplicity of side-effects, even toxic in nature.

The trade in medicinal drugs has a number of disturbing dimensions to it and some of these have been examined and debated in even this newspaper. One of these is the seemingly uncurbable practice among some sections of the medical profession to induce their patients to go in for drugs known by their much touted brand names, rather than prescribe the same medicines under their more purse - easy generic names. Such pernicious practices only help the multinational pharmaceutical firms and less scrupulous medical professionals who have an eye to mainly favourable bank balances.

However, there is no certainty as to whether these drugs have a beneficial impact on the patients concerned - from the health and financial viewpoints. We, therefore, commend the Colombo Medical Faculty's Department of Pharmacology on its decision to do a survey on the ill-effects of the drugs in the market at present. We call on all patients who are being administered these drugs to be forthcoming with the information needed by the authorities. Such information would help the latter to track down and hopefully eliminate any harm - inducing drugs. For the ill-effects of these drugs are numerous inasmuch as they are deleterious.

Now that this subject of superfluous drugs is once again being raised, we call on the authorities to ensure that the institutions coming under their purview, such as the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, provide to the public only essential drugs under their generic names. Osu Sala outlets need to take a lead role in this venture.

We wish the medical profession too would pay more attention to their social responsibilities rather than remain constantly mired in trade union disputes over the perennial plague which is salaries and perks.

www.peaceinsrilanka.org

Kapruka

Keellssuper

www.eagle.com.lk

Crescat Development Ltd.

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