BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Determining antibiotic use in the population is problematic in India, as there are no population level databases on prescriptions and over-the-counter sales. This study attempts to establish a methodology for surveillance of antibiotic use in the community. METHODS Antibiotic use was monitored in fi ve municipal wards of Delhi, from January-December 2004. Thirty co-oper...

Acetylsalicylic acid is a frequently used medication worldwide. It is not used in pediatrics due its association with Reye syndrome. However, in case of pediatric intoxication, children are more fragile to salicylate poisoning because of their reduced ability of buffer the acid stress. Intoxication leads to a decoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and subsequently to a loss in mitochondrial fu...

“There is a whole book of readymade, long and convincing, lavishly composed telegrams for all occasions. Sending such a telegram costs only twenty-five cents. You see, what gets transmitted over the telegraph is not the text of the telegram, but simply the number under which it is listed in the book, and the signature of the sender. This is quite a funny thing, reminiscent of Drugstore Breakfas...

OBJECTIVE To explore the purpose/s for which people with chronic conditions and their carers use Australian community pharmacies, and compare this to what pharmacy services they consider important, from the perspectives of both consumers and pharmacists. DESIGN An exploratory study involving a survey, which asked participants to indicate the pharmacy services they had ever used, and rate the ...

BACKGROUND The stigma of mental illness can be a barrier to effective medication management in the community pharmacy setting. This article explored mental health consumers' or caregivers' experiences of stigma in Australian community pharmacies. MATERIALS Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of consumers or caregivers (n = 74). Interview transcri...

BACKGROUND Current evidence supports the benefit of medicine-use review (MUR) for the safe and effective use of medicines. However, little is known about opinions of consumers regarding their preference for undertaking MUR, especially in the developing world, eg, in some Asian countries. We aimed to explore patients' opinions about potential MUR and other enhanced services provided by community...

BACKGROUND In developing country like BANGLADESH, people depend more on pharmacies due to expediency, shorter waiting time, cost reduction, availability of credit and flexible opening hours. The aim of this study was to investigate medicines dispensing patterns of the pharmacies in RAJSHAHI, BANGLADESH and to identify and analyze contribution of drugsellers and quacks in irrational drug use. ...

BACKGROUND Reforms in the health-care sector, including the pharmacy sector, can have different rationales. The Swedish pharmacies were prior to 2009 organized in a state-owned monopoly. In 2009, a liberalization of the ownership took place, in which a majority of the pharmacies were sold to private owners. The rationales for this liberalization changed profoundly during the preparatory work, m...

BACKGROUND In 1999, the Pharmacists Association of Gipuzkoa, a Spanish province with a population of 700,000, initiated a campaign to reduce the common practice in community pharmacies of dispensing antibiotics without prescription. OBJECTIVE The study was designed to assess the ongoing effectiveness of this program in reducing nonprescription dispensing of antibiotics. METHODS In March 200...