POOR CONTROL OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS COULD BE SENDING MANY KENYANS TO THEIR GRAVES TOO EARLY. Every time you visit a doctor or a pharmacist in Kenya you could be paying for your ticket to early reception at the grave. When I was last back home in Kenya, I noticed with great concern that Pharmacies in Kenya just sell all prescription drugs indiscriminately over the counter and that included ANTIBIOTICS. I knew that it was a killer to many Kenyans and only a matter of time that some one very close to me becomes a victim too. Exposure to most chemicals possess some side effects and acceptable levels vary depending on the end objective. It is however undesirable to use medicine in a manner which could deliberately jeopardise good health-and to this end I dare declare that medical profession in Kenya is extremely lacking in ethics which brings me to ask whether there is any code of practice at all!!! You can go to any chemist in Kenya and buy just about anything as long as
you can pay for it. This is very dangerous considering that not every Kenyan can afford professional medical consultation. Many people when attacked by ill health will assume they know what they are suffering from and even attempt to self prescribe a medication for it. You can bet that in Kenya hundreds of thousands subscribe to that frame of thinking everyday for obvious reasons and we cannot blame them but the regulating authorities. As vulnerable as the society is, the health professionals are not making it any better by some of their conducts and I sincerely sympathies with the honest and committed medics of good conduct even as I lay this blame. Quality treatment is pegged on how much you can afford and yes that is true everywhere. However, there is a new paradigm in this sector——generic drugs formula. This is what is offered to people who cannot afford the correct medication they actually need to treat their complaint. Just what exactly is this jargon, could
Kenyans be paying for poisonous counterfeit drugs under the guise of affordable alternative drugs. Can somebody find out more on this. Recently a timely trip by a friend of mine from Kenya to the U.K just saved his life. If he only stayed in Kenya for one more week, he would be dead today and you know why……he was prescribed an antibiotic by a doctor for an assumed symptom which turned out in effective according to the doctor who ended up prescribing a stronger antibiotic. The result was_______ he suffered a 90% renal failure which nearly killed him. He is still hospitalized as I am writing this email and thank God that he is improving and hopefully may gain near full recovery of his kidneys function. The point is that many Kenyans must be dying in silence in the hands of negligent medical professionals and poor regulations. It is bad enough that the government does not have the capacity to deliver a comprehensive health care but to compound that with poor or no
regulation at all is not acceptable. The government must act on this menace and bring some sanity in the health sector. Doctors and health workers in general demand bribes from patients for delivering just about any service in the government health institutions!! What is wrong with our society? In many societies a lot of trust is placed on doctors, clerics, police officers, teachers and village elders, but can you trust any from this group in our society? If a Kenyan who can afford to travel to the U.K for treatment is vulnerable, how about the poor Kenyans who can not even access the health service. Below is some information on the common side effects with antibiotics QUOTE Side effects of antibiotics The most common side effects with antibiotic drugs are diarrhea, feeling sick and being sick. Fungal infections of the mouth, digestive tract and vagina can also occur with antibiotics because they destroy the protective ‘good’ bacteria in the body (which help
prevent overgrowth of any one organism), as well as the ‘bad’ ones, responsible for the infection being treated.
Rare, but more serious side effects, include the formation of kidney stones with the sulphides, abnormal blood clotting with some of the cephalosporins, increased sensitivity to the sun with the tetracyclines, blood disorders with trimethoprim, and deafness with erythromycin and the aminoglycosides.
Sometimes, particularly in older people, antibiotic treatment can cause a type of colitis (inflamed bowel) leading to severe diarrhea. Penicillins, cephalosporins and erythromycin can all cause this problem but it is most common with clindamycin, an antibiotic usually reserved for serious infections. If you develop diarrhea while taking an antibiotic, immediately contact your doctor.
Some people are allergic to antibiotics, particularly penicillins, and can develop Side effects such as a rash, swelling of the face and tongue, and difficulty breathing when they take them. Always tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic; sometimes the reaction can be serious or even fatal. This is called an anaphylactic reaction (BUPA, UK)

UNQUOTE

Thanks

Paul

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Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:10:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: PAUL ODERA
Subject: GOVERNMENT POOR REGULATION IS A THREAT TO KENYANS GOOD HEALTH