A fat prescription

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

An MBBS doctor had prescribed prednisolone tablets to patients making out it is a drug that would make them fat, Health Ministry sources said. According to the sources the drug, Prednisolon, increases the amount of water inside the human body which creates a swelling within the body.

"It is not a case of becoming fat but only a swelling caused by one of the side effects of Prednisolone. Sometimes fat people become thin and thin people become fat due to certain diseases but there are no drugs that can be prescribed for ordinary people to become fat or thin," these sources said.

Prednisolone is a drug that is usually prescribed for many diseases and conditions. Some of these are asthma, eczema, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. It is not prescribed for healthy persons with no sickness, the sources said. There may be more such doctors (not quack doctors, but well qualified MBBS doctors) who earn money by prescribing wrong medicines for patients that do not need drugs. Therefore the public should be vigilant on such incidents, the sources added.