LONDON - Buying medicine online without consulting a doctor could well lead to complex health conditions, warn doctors. This latest warning comes after a 64-year old woman was nearly blinded after consuming medicines that she had bought from an online pharmacy store in Thailand.
After diagnosing herself to be suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, the 64-year old pensioner took the drugs for four years before she realized that her eyesight very getting weak. In February, she consulted doctors at the accident and emergency department of the Sunderland Royal Infirmary, who after examining her found out that she was suffering from glaucoma and cataracts due to the steroid, prednisolone, that she had been taking for the past 4 years.
Dr Scott Fraser and Dr Philip Severn, who examined the patient, then decided to make an online search, which revealed that they could purchase as many as 1000 tablets of the same steroid for just £25.23.
Mr Fraser admitted that though the treatment would have been right for her condition, the patient had taken a larger dose than necessary and was not able to realize the side effects caused by it. In a report written in The Lancet medical journal, the doctors warn that many of the drug therapies sold online will be counterfeit and even if they get hold of a genuine one, they require close medical monitoring.
"Some of the drug therapies can be counterfeit and contain a concoction of compounds that bear little resemblance to the drug named on the bottle. Even if the patient receives the actual drug, there are many problems with this unchecked availability, including interactions with coexisting treatment, side effects and the lack of careful medical monitoring,” the researchers write.
“The expansion of the Internet is relentless and, from the perspective of patients seeking information, in the main, positive. However, the online availability of controlled and uncontrolled drugs therapies needs to be carefully monitored,” they conclude.
