A recent report by David Batty of the Guardian revealed that H1N1 flu drugs available in internet may be counterfeit products.
The government's chief medical officer has warned the public against panic-buying swine flu drugs online after it was revealed that the number of new cases of the virus could reach 100,000 per day.
Professor Sir Liam Donaldson said Britain had a large stockpile of Tamiflu, the antiviral drug used to combat infection with the H1N1 virus, and there was no need for people to buy what were likely to be counterfeit medicines on the internet.
His comments came as a 19-year-old man was confirmed today as the fourth person with swine flu to die in the UK. The teenager from south London, who had other serious health problems, tested positive for the virus after his death on Wednesday.
The health secretary, Andy Burnham, yesterday told MPs the spread of swine flu in the UK could no longer be contained.
He said predictions showed the figure of up to 100,000 new cases diagnosed every day could be reached by the end of next month.
In a Commons statement yesterday, Burnham said the country had moved into the "treatment phase" of its response to the flu pandemic.
No more schools will be closed unless forced to by a lack of staff or if pupils are especially vulnerable.
Families and others in contact with infected people will not be given preventative antiviral drugs – a move some doctors predict could push people to go to internet pharmacies.
Donaldson told GMTV there was considerable concern that people might buy counterfeit drugs.
"People shouldn't buy Tamiflu from the internet," he said. "We have got a massive stockpile in this country, and everybody can have access to it through the National Health Service."
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's director of policy, David Pruce, said most Tamiflu for sale online was probably fake because no legitimate online pharmacy would sell it.
"These sites could be based anywhere in the world," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "They could be selling anything from sugar to rat poison.
"Counterfeiters are very good at producing goods that look like the genuine article. When it's counterfeit medicines and you've got really no idea what's in the tablet or the capsule, you're taking your life in your hands."
Pruce added that while people could get a private prescription for Tamiflu from their GP, there was no point in taking the drug unless they had symptoms.
There are now 7,447 diagnosed cases in the UK, but the number is doubling every week.
People who think they may have flu are advised to go online and check their symptoms on the NHS website or call the swine flu information line on 0800 1 513 513.
Anyone still concerned after that should phone their GP, who can provide a diagnosis over the phone.
If swine flu is confirmed, they will be issued with an authorisation voucher, which a "flu friend" can take to an antiviral drug collection point, which may be a pharmacy or a health centre.
The first doses of swine flu vaccine will arrive in the UK in August. Although the government has ordered enough for the entire population, it will arrive in batches.
At-risk groups – especially those vulnerable because of diseases which have compromised their immune systems or affect their breathing, such as asthma – would get it first.
The shift in the government's swine flu strategy came as the World Health Organisation warned that the spread of swine flu was now "unstoppable", with a total of 112 countries reporting nearly 77,201 infected people and 332 deaths since April.
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Sometimes in life, we meet or read about some personalities who inspire us to be more than who/what we are. Some of them are famous, others notorious while a few are unsung heroes. One person whom I truly admire for his grit, determination, perseverance, creativity and many other traits - is none other than Steve Jobs.
I posted STEVE JOBS - an unwanted baby who became an entrepreneur in April this year and this morning, I thought about his progress after his liver transplant and decided to do another post on him.
In January, Steve Jobs took medical leave to take himself “out of the limelight” and go on leave after learning his health issues were more complex than he originally thought. On June 29th, Bloomberg reported that Steve Jobs went back to Apple Inc. as chief executive officer as planned after taking medical leave in January.
Jobs, a cancer survivor, said in January he would resume his daily duties at the end of June. A week earlier, Jobs’s doctors disclosed last week that he had a liver transplant and said he was recovering well. When Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, appeared thinner at the company’s developers conference in June 2008, many had speculated that he was ill. Apple first said he was suffering from a “common bug” and then declined to comment, saying his health was a private matter. The shares fluctuated with each new report on Jobs’s health.
Jobs had his transplant about two months ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. Jobs was the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a liver was available, James Eason, chief of transplantation at the Methodist University Hospital, said in a June 23 statement.
Most liver-transplant patients are back at work in about two to three months, Abhinav Humar, clinical director of the Division of Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said this month. He didn’t treat Jobs and has no direct knowledge of his case.
For more about Steve Jobs, please CLICK HERE and also THIS LINK.
Very few people bounce back so quickly after experiencing a major operation. To me, Steve Jobs is certainly a man whom many can look up to for inspiration and the oomph to plod on no matter how dark the day.
Do take some time to read his Commencement Speech at Stanford (2005) to understand his philosophy and perspective of life. If the file does not upload, please click THIS LINK. I really hope that you will take some time read his speech because you will most probably be touched and inspired by the heart of this man who has so much inner strength to overcome the odds when things looked so bleak at every stage of his life.
To be honest, I used to take disappointments very badly - griping and worrying but recent events in the last 8 months have really overhauled my mind and perspective of life to the extent that I can now let go of many things and live with a smile on my face even if things do not go according to plan. From a perfectionist, I morphed into a calmer and stronger character and for this and all those people who touched my life in the past few months - I am eternally grateful.
I live each day now without worrying about the future or the past or even today because I am thankful, so very grateful for what I have and even what I do not have.
At the moment, I am quite sick with a bad URTI (upper respiratory tract infection) triggered by a sinus attack and was a bit flustered with some html codes. Surprisingly, I was not as worked up like I used to be and I can let it go. So what if there are glitches now and then? Life is not perfect, neither am I...or anyone for that matter...It is up to us to see life positively and to move on. I no longer accentuate the negative but try to see the positive in everything that comes my way and you know what? I am much happier, contented and cannot ask for more er...perhaps except for silky hair and a svelte figure :-).
Anyway, do read his speech if you can, ok? Thanks and have a nice day!
P.S. Don't you think Steve Jobs qualifies to be one of the top five most sexy men in the world together with Hugh jackman, George Clooney, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck??? :-)
