Pharmacy in the other worlds…Uganda

A census surveillance done across 9 districts of Uganda recorded information on the types of pharmacy outlets and antimalarial medications available in Uganda.[i] Below are some information from the census:

• Numerous antimalarials are avilable for sale with 174 antimalarial medications found on the market and each outlet had an average of 6-9 different antimalarial medicines. 
• Least expansive but ineffective (resistance to the malaria strain in Uganda) medications such as chloroquine are widely avaiable. 
• Chloroquine prices ranged from 200 to 500 Uganda Schillings (US$0.13 to US$0.34) 
• An effective 1^st line recommended antimalarial combination: Artemisinin-based combination therapy or ACT prices ranged from 9,000 to 20,000 Uganda Schillings (US$6,2 to US$13,6)
• The main driver for antimalarial drugs is cost. Only 50% of patients purchased a full course of medicines. It requires 28-50 days of work by the lowest paid government worker was required to cover a family’s (2 adults, 3 children) annual treatment of ACT if purchased in the private sector. An average of 14-25% of household income was required to cover a family’s ACTs annual treatment if purchased in the private sector.

Even though this is only a snapshot of the conditions with antimalarial drugs, the implications of affordable effective medcations and the availability of these medications can be applied to other concerning areas such as TB and HIV.

                In Uganda, a population of approximately 30 million, only 688 pharmaceutical personnels (which include pharmacists, pharmaceutical assistants, pharmaceutical technicians and related occupations) are available to help with medication management.[ii] With approximately 750 outlets (including private, public, mission & for-profit; formal & informal) selling at least 174 different formulations, strength, and manufacturer permutations of just the antimalarial medications, it is necessary to have enough trained personnel to operate these facilities and to provide education for these medications.¹

                Other options to solving these problems include, political buy-in from the government to reduce cost, widen distribution through OTC status, provide microfinancing to healthcare clinics, generating demand for ACTs and tracking progress and impact.

What do you think? 

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¹ Understanding the Amtimalarials Market: Uganda 2007 – An Overview of the supply side. Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Ministry of Health and Civil Society (HEPS).  Accessed April 2009. http://www.mmv.org/article.php3?id_article=536&recherche=uganda

[ii] World Health Organization. Uganda healthcare workforce statistics. Accessed April 2009. http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process.cfm?country=uga&indicators=healthpersonnel

Swine Flu Pandemic?

I just gave a mini-lecture in class about swine flu so I should write about it too!

Everytime I click refresh, new swine cases are popping out (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu) NOTE: The 6 cases of swine flu from Washington this morning are not even up on CDC website yet (4/30/09; 3:00pm). 

Apparently my friend was working up @ Everett Clinic so I had to call her about the pediatrician confirmed case.  The pediatrician originally thought her symptoms were from allergies and so lab samples were sent into CDC on Monday(CDC is one of the four places in the WORLD that could confirm swine H1N1 subtype, but reagents are being sent to various states now).  She described the flu to be worse than when she got malaria before.

Some info on Swine:

• Swine flu (H1N1) is thought to be passed on from pig to human and then mutanted to transmit from humans-to-humans.  It’s not transmitted from pigs to humans. Pork is safe to eat “so far”.
• Swine flu is thought to be more viralent because infected healthy adults who normall recover from normal flu are dying (from swelling of the lungs that leads to difficult in breathing).
• Tamiflu and Relenza are tested to be sensitive to swine N1H1 and are being used as treatments to swine flu.

Swine flu is treatable but contagious.  The World Health Organization has increased alert level to 5 of 6 levels, indicating “pandemic is iminent”.  The WHO, CDC, and Washington State Department of Health have excellent real-time information about the swine flu!

Why is the world dying?

Where else can we go?

*Prays*

Livescribe

Livescribe came out with the smartest of all smart pens. 

The Pulse Smart Pen comes with lithium rechargeable battery, IGB or 2GB of memory (up to 200 hrs of recording time), voice recording function, and an embedded speaker.  The coolest thing (for me) is that it can synchronize audio lectures with the lecture notes using special paper with embedded microns.  The notes can also be transfered onto your PC and shared among your friends!

The only down side is it’s a $150-$200.00 pen AND you still have to write out your notes.

 

Difference in Price Tag

There is a reason why replica handbags are rampaging on the internet and on the streets of chinatowns all over the US.  It’s easy to use the most expensive calf, crocrodile, and deer skin to make the most expensive handbags, but it’s hard to wear it and have everyone recognize its price, season and brand instantly.

That’s the difference between Fendi and Forever21 (F21)…or is it? How about Tory Burch and Steve Madden?

And if you ever find yourself luring towards the lovely handbag in an upscale Soho boutique but it costs too much, the chances are that you can find the exact same one on the internet for 500% less in a few months. 

Some examples of girly secrets….shhh.

• The BagAddiction
• HighReplica
• SofiasReplica

Guys, don’t even think about buying one of these for your girlfriends. They can tell instantly a fake vs. real one…then you’ll be screwed for life ^^.

 

 

Embarrassing myself…twice in a roll.

So yesterday I was mixing IV bags in one of those hoods and I poked myself with a transfer needle. (FYI, the transfer needle is the thickist needle you can find in the pharmacy). Instantly, my one of my gloves was filled with blood and I rushed to clean up the mess.  I was amazed how much blood came out of that little poke after two paper towels and lots of pressure!

But then as I sat in the IV room, I felt the world was darkening and my vision became blurry with lots of dark spots.  My coworkers tried to take me outside the room and I couldn’t even hold on to the walls! So they sat me down and they were all scared because my face was all white. I tried comforting them, saying that I was alright and just needed a few moments for my body to work its magic. So it turned out that I just needed some fresh air from wearing the stuffy face mask and lots of food since I didn’t have breakfast.  The only good thing about almost-fainting is that everyone was extra nice to me the rest of the day.

So yaya I am still alive!

Since we are already on the subject of fainting… 

The second embarrasing moment was when the whole school read my paragraph about why I want to run for the Director of Media and Publication.  I’ll just say that my paragraph was only four sentences long, and none of them mentioned how smart I actually am.  My opponent had more than ten sentences in two paragraphs and the first sentence was already better than my whole paragraph! What have I done!?

 

 

 

 

China naughty again

China is busted, again.

 Recent New York Times featured the latest discovery of illegal child labor in southern China’s GuangDong Province. More than a hundred 13-15 year olds were tricked/kidnapped by employment agencies and forced to work 300 hrs/month at only $0.42 cents/hr!!

 China’s embarrassments just keep on coming…

•  President Hu Jintao was the first Olympics torch bearer in China. I don’t think there has ever been a president SO excited about Olympics to have to come out from his chinese white house to do this and it certainly did not make China look any better.
• China just drove all of its Beijing homeless into some vacant buildings without any food and other provisions so that Beijing can make way for that oh-so-important Olympics. Not to mention the thousands of homeless created in the first place because of the construction.
• And NO chinese food in China?! China hired foreign professional chiefs in order to prepare authentic foreign delicacies for foreigners for fear of poisonings and boycott from other countries.
• And of course there’s always those annoying disease outbreaks.

And yes I am chinese and I am not perfect either.

Figure above: where the Beijing Olympics logo comes from.

Happiness in Silver Linings

Everyone is obsessed about Viagra (Sildenafil, pronounced sill-DEN-a-fill), a magic pill used to treat ED (erectile dysfunction) by increasing blood flow through inhibition of PDE5.  Thanks to Pfizer, Viagra’s manufacturer, the problem of impotence is finally solved, or so ita seems…

 

What bothers me is that patients come into Harborivew with a roll of $20-dollar bills for 6 tablets of Viagra but never seem to have enough for a $5.00 copayment for their blood pressure/HTN meds.

Something to think about:

1. Advertisements paid for by Pfizer claim that 40% of  men have ED problems. But it’s more like 3% of 40 year olds and 60% of 70 year olds.
2. Common Side Effects: headache (16-46%), dyspepsia (7-17%), flushing (10%), rash(2%), color changes, blurred and increased sensitivity to light (3%; up to 11% >100mg), and nasal congestion (4%)
3. Caution when using with nitrates (e.g. nitroglycerin, isosorbide dinitrate) and risk of hypotension when used cocurrently with betablockers…etc.
4. go to ER if duration of action is well over 5 hours.

So you basically can’t see, can’t smell, your head hurts and you risk your life if you have diabetes or any cardiovascular diseases.

Nonetheless, it is estimated that 300 million men will be using Viagra by 2025.

I wonder why.

 

 

Red Coat Theory

Everyone wants a “red coat”; something you wear not only to stand out from the crowd but to be the first (and only) one to claim its ownership among your friends. Hence, the second, third, and forth person to own this “red coat” is suppressed by societal peer pressure not to invite attention for fear of title “copycat”.

However, this cascade of effects will only come into reality if the owner embraces all the responsibilities of owning this “red coat”. This means getting a nice pair of Rock&Republic jeans, a pair of black 3” patent pump and either a $$ hair cut or a really good hair straigtener.

This explains why ladies would buy a $1500.00 Prada handbag instead of three $500.00 Coach handbags. Coach handbags are necessities but the Prada bag is about luxury, glamour and envy.

My Future Companion

no it’s not my bf. but someone who can save me from embarrassing moments when I round with physicians next summer. It’s the HCT Diamond phone that comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, windows mobile 6.1, and weighs only 110g!

HCT, a Taiwanese company, is going to launch its Diamond in Europe in a couple weeks and rumor says it might come around to US later this year!(?) I really hope AT&T will offer this, but it’s probably not likely since it already offers the iphone and the LG Vu. (“><”)

 

 

707SC DC’d

My 707SC  phone doesn’t need a show girl to know that it’s fashionable.  It’s white, sleek and patent.

But I lost it, and found it the next afternoon in the middle of the road outside my boyfriend’s place… with a half-broken screen -_-!!  THEN, I found out that Softbank discontinued 707SC and added a new 707SCII that comes only in black and red. So…my new 707SCII black is still sleek but not white nor patent. The only good feature Softbank added is a slot where I can hang accessories. If only I didn’t drop it…

 I took these pictures to show you how the two phones look EXACTLY the same but one is so much cooler.