A Doctor’s Dilemma: When Crucial New-Drug Data Is Hidden

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-goldacre

This recent article from the guardian uncovers the truth behind the trials for drug testing, and new evidence supports the idea that many drugs that are released to the general public in the United Kingdom do not actually do what they are meant to do. Researchers and scientists support the supposed success of their drugs by providing false information. Their false claims are then interpreted to be true and then the medicine is produced in mass quantities for people to use. 

The first of these drugs that was busted was reboxetine, an antidepressant drug. A trial was done with 254 patients, comparing the effectiveness of reboxetine with a placebo. There was virtually no difference between them, except for one random success story (which was later used as evidence by scientists to be effective and allowed them to release it to the market). After that, reboxetine was compared to other antidepressant drugs on the market. This time, 507 patients were tested in three trials. The results of those studies found that those similar dugs were just as ineffective as reboxetine. 

This is a major issue because the patients taking the medication and the doctors relying on the statistics are actually getting poor information. The information that we absolutely rely on to be true on a day to day basis is provided by health care regulators, but if these drugs aren't doing what they were allegedly supposed do then how can we rely on the effectiveness of other drugs that we use?

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101/en/index.html This article listed on the website of the World Health Organization has highlighted the decline of leprosy. Medications to counter the disease have been implemented since the 1940s, but the disease has slowly become more resistant to certain types of drugs. Today, we have a strong multi-drug therapy that can successfully counteracted the progression of leprosy. Initially, leprosy had been affecting millions of people around the world. Advances in science have allowed us to expand our research and capabilities to fighting diseases, and studies show that progress is being made. Over 14 million people have been cured of leprosy in the last 20 years, but this is due largely in part of the organization of the World Health Assembly (by setting the goal of eliminating leprosy) and the World Health Organization (by providing the proper MDT treatment to everyone for free). This is just one example of how advancements in the health world can be beneficial in keeping the world's population healthy. I think that it is great that long-standing illnesses like leprosy are being managed and eradicated on a global scale. This is certainly evidence that our work is coming through and, if our current efforts progress, we can see more helpful changes in international health policy.

SOC 162 Journal entry for September 11, 2012 http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/10/private-school-parents-are-more-likely-to-opt-out-of-vaccines/?iid=hl-main-lede In this article from the Associated Press, there has been a large increase in the number of parents that have decided to opt out of having their children receive their vaccinations. Parents cited several reasons including “religious values, concerns the shots themselves could cause illness and a belief that allowing children to get sick helps them to build a stronger immune system.” Public health officials are worried by these beliefs because it not only puts the individual at risk, but it also puts the entire community at risk for allowing an outbreak or epidemic to occur. Their studies indicate that receiving the proper inoculations at the right times will allow the community to live a healthy life. To counter act this, some representatives are pushing for the approval of forcing parents to sit with a health official so that they may be properly informed on the type of vaccine that they are receiving and the good that it will do to keep people healthy. Despite these facts, many families have been unable to be dissuaded. In some cases, they took their healthy child to receive his or her required shots, but they developed certain illnesses days after their medical appointment. Parents think that the vaccine that was administered to their child caused them to grow extremely ill. Many parents attribute their children’s autism to vaccines.