Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

For the first time since the blood thinner warfarin was introduced more than half a century ago, Canadian researchers are reporting that a new drug is safer and more effective at reducing the risk of stroke in high-risk patients.
An estimated 250,000 Canadians suffer from atrial fibrillation, or AF, a potentially life-threatening heart rhythm disorder that causes the heart to quiver and beat chaotically. Blood can pool in the upper chambers of the !–more– heart, allowing clots to form and travel up to the arteries that feed the brain, creating a stroke. AF patients are at five times greater risk of developing stroke, and twice as likely to die from one, than patients without the condition.
The disorder affects about three per cent of the population over age 45, and about six per cent over age 65, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Warfarin has been the drug of choice for reducing stroke risk in atrial fibrillation for more than 20 years. But it increases the risk of major bleeding, sometimes into the brain. About half the patients who might benefit can’t take it, and when they do try and take it, they often end up having to stop it for a variety of reasons, says Dr. Stuart Connolly, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton.

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Health officials in Hong Kong reported Friday a single instance in which a strain of the swine flu was found to be resistant to Tamiflu, the main antiviral drug used to treat the virus.
The case involved a 16-year-old girl who came from the United States in mid-June, had mild symptoms, and was eventually discharged.
The current strain of H1N1 influenza A virus has been circulating in several countries since it first appeared in Mexico in April.
!–more– The Tamiflu-resistant strain in Hong Kong was found during routine sensitivity testing of the swine flu virus to both oseltamivir and zanamivir, the Hong Kong Department of Health said in a statement on its website.
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are the two antiviral drugs that appear to be effective in treating the H1N1 virus, Health Canada says.

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Local and international pharmacists have expressed fears over the abuse of antibiotics, saying if the trend would continue at the present rate, curable infectious diseases, would be sending majority of the people to the grave early.
“In Tanzania the predicament of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is alarming,“ said Zaina Msami, a renowned pharmacist at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) project-Mission for Essential Medical Supplies (more…)

Gonorrhea superbugs are swiftly emerging in Canada, and men, as well as patients over 30 are at the greatest risk, new research shows.
In women, untreated gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and scarring of the fallopian tubes, causing infertility. In men, it can cause inflammation of the prostate and urethra.
For both sexes, the sexually transmitted infection can cause serious bloodstream and joint infections, as well as immune (more…)

There has been a sharp increase in the percentage of gonorrhea cases in Ontario that are resistant to antibiotics that until recently were potent and simple-to-use weapons against the sexually transmitted infection, a new study published Tuesday reveals.
The research showed that 28 per cent of gonorrhea samples tested in 2006 were resistant to fluoroquinolone drugs, up from four per cent in 2002. And in selected sites, it was even higher, according (more…)