We all know how powerful and influential the pharmaceutical companies are worldwide. Often the question is asked whether enough research is being conducted to find out whether the drugs worth billions of rupees being consumed by the trusting public are safe and effective. The recent findings by government officials and a top medical institution has raised serious doubts on this score.
Allergy to medicines ‘is killing thousands’, is the heading of a news story in The Times of London. “Nearly 3,000 patients have died in the past three years as a result of taking medicines intended to help them, official figures show. Thousands more have been hospitalised after suffering harmful side-effects or serious allergic reactions to prescription drugs and other medications.
“Almost half of the deaths occurred last year, while the number of reported adverse drug reactions has increased by 45 per cent over a decade. Growing numbers of patients taking aspirin and other medications for chronic illness such as heart disease could be fuelling the trend, experts suggest.
“Drugs most commonly implicated in adverse reactions include low-dose aspirin, diuretics, the anticoagulant drug warfarin and other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs.
“Approximately 20,000 reports of adverse drug reactions are made to the (Britain’s) Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and Commission for Human Medicines every year through a spontaneous reporting system known as the ‘yellow card’ scheme. But Dawn Primarolo, the Minister for Public Health, admitted that the yellow card scheme ‘is associated with an unknown level of underreporting’.”
In another news story with a heading ‘We’re dying for a better drugs test’ by Anjana Ahuja’, “There is a way of testing new medicines that allows inferior drugs to come on to the market. I don’t mean inferior in the sense that the drug doesn’t help as many people as an existing medicine; I mean that it can be linked with more deaths than an existing medication, and still be approved.
“An excellent paper in The Lancet recently explained how non-inferiority trials work, why they are unethical and why they should be banned. I relay its contents because it is quite possible that you are taking a pill that has travelled this dubious route from laboratory to medicine cabinet.”
So think before you pop a pill in your mouth. I wonder why no one discusses alternative medicine, or does research on it, despite claims that dramatic cures/healings are being achieved…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.