Pharmacology

Medscape has combined two drug databases on the web into one comprehensive resource. Information from the National Drug Data File from FirstDataBank, and the American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information reference from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Find information on drug-drug and drug-food interactions, uses and dosage, preparations, adverse effects, and four other categories for every drug. Patient education handouts are available for printing and distributing.

Excellent publication of the Dept of Pharmacology, UCT. Provides therapeutic information on most drugs registered in South Africa.

The registrar of medicines, Mandisa Hela, admitted to MPs yesterday that the Medicines Control Council could not cope with its workload, and was in dire need of an overhaul.

Empty spaces on pharmacy shelves, and shortages of some cold and asthma medicines as well as appetite suppressants, are unintended consequences of the battle to prevent the manufacture of tik, an addictive methamphetamine widely abused in poor communities in the Western Cape.

Fake and substandard drugs in Africa by immoral medical companies is a serious worry. Malaria continues to be a serious concern. It affects more than 100 countries and about 40percent of the worlds population. It causes between 300 and 500 million infections and about a million deaths each year. It is estimated that malaria kills a child every 30 seconds in spite of the disease being entirely preventable and curable. At the eighth World Health Assembly meeting in 1955, it was resolved to begin a worldwide eradication campaign of malaria. Though the campaign was eventually abandoned and considered a failure, it registered resounding successes in eradicating malaria from large regions across the globe. The successful application of insecticides and the effectiveness of antimalarial treatments formed the cornerstones of the programme.

The health department has called for bids for the next AIDS-drug tender, a move keenly awaited by local pharmaceutical firms that invested heavily in developing capacity to make generic copies of patented antiretroviral medicines. SA has the worlds biggest caseload of HIV patients, with about 5,4-million people infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Francinah Ndala, pastor and chairperson of the township Ladies Forum, is no ordinary member of the community she is a statuesque woman with a slightly intimidating air, who proclaims that when I talk, everybody listens. Altogether an ideal candidate to participate in the community advisory group for microbicide clinical trials in Soshanguve, a township outside South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

South Africans are changing their hard-drug habits, but the fallout from substance abuse remains the same: the destruction of lives, families and communities.