Vacinatons and the Trend Grows to "Opt Out"

If you are tempted to delay any vaccinations for your children, it’s critical that you educate yourself about the diseases those vaccinations are intended to prevent. As an increasing number of parents are delaying or forgoing certain vaccinations, it’s no longer possible to simply assume these diseases will remain so rare that they are not a threat. Exit herd immunity. Find out about the diseases themselves.... tetanus not spread person to person but spores in dirt as a source. Mumps can cause issues with males later on.

Swine Flu

Oh, sorry... I meant to say H1N1. I wouldn't want the farmers to have to slaughter their swine since people aren't eating swine with the thoughts of pigs passing this disease to us. Stop the presses. You mean farmers are killing pigs because of the Swine Flu?

And you are upset?

Aren't the pigs going to get slaughtered anyway? *sigh*

Here we are in the middle of a mild case of the flu hitting the US in the spring. Glad it didn't hit in the fall.

Underlying conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease or tuberculosis appear to put swine flu victims at greater risk of hospitalization or death, doctors from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

** so does the regular flu **

Swine flu tally reaches 3,440 in 29 countries: from the World Health Organization.

circumcision and health

There is a big debate online in certain mother forums about circumcision and "why would you want to operate on something that God created?" along with big icons "NO CIRC" and references to mutilation when it comes to the practice in the US. It's amazing to me that mothers become so heated in discussing something already proven to reduce the incidence of HIV infection in men and now, according to the New York Times, reduces the transmission of both herpes simplex virus Type 2 and human papilloma virus. The study was a randomized clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine assigned more than 3,000 uncircumcised Ugandan men who were not infected with HSV-2 to undergo immediate circumcision or to be circumcised 24 months from the start of the investigation. A subgroup was similarly evaluated for HPV infection. The study showed a 25% reduced risk of infection. Of course, the results don't apply to their partners. For the types of HPV that cause genital cancer, the results were about 18 percent of circumcised men were infected at the end of two years, compared with almost 28 percent in the control group making a 35 percent reduced risk of infection. Unfortunately, when you are in the hospital or at home with a midwife giving birth to a baby boy, the full information isn't given to the parents (the ones making the decision) concerning the benefits or risks in either. In fact, in the US, the rates of circumcision are declining, especially among black and Hispanic patients, the same groups with high rates of HIV, herpes infection, and cervical cancer. Sixteen states don't allow Medicaid to pay for routine circumcision.

reglan and tardive dyskinesia

FDA notified healthcare professionals that a boxed warning had to be added to drug labels about the risk of long-term or high-dose use of metoclopramide (reglan) and the possibility of tardive dyskinesia.    There is no reversal of tardive dyskinesia and no treatment available. What is tardive dyskinesia?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_3bbpFjI68]

google jumps in on flu trends

Yep, you've guessed it.  You can now search, lookup, see what is under the ocean, and now...  (drum roll please)... See Flu Trends.

Google might need a pharmacist on staff.

You never know.  ;)

Move Over MRSA...

Right now there are very few antibiotic treatments for these newer "super bugs" that just happen to be gram negative.  Imagine having another infection, the one that is a nuisance but ends up killing you.  It's happening today -- something like a simple UTI taking your life.  It's unthinkable. Doctors see gram-negative infections among patients who are already very ill. Might be babies in the NICU, very old patients, patients who've just had surgery, burn patients in the ICU, for example. Gram-negative bacteria can enter the body by way of catheters, IVs, ventilators or wounds.  And the drugs to treat them are few and far between.  Keep in mind MRSA started in the hospital.  Same for this new category.

If you are like my many friends, as soon as you get a sniffle or UTI, you head into the doctor's office to get a round of antibiotics.  Stop...  do you really need them?  OK, I try not to blame the lay public for this.  I blame the physicians.  Stop giving in to the patient and find out if they really have an infection before giving them an antibiotic for a virus. Like with MRSA, not overprescribing antibiotics; that's how these bacteria learn how to adapt and become less treatable.

More reading.

Will Rite Aid Closing Be Another Loss In Our Failing Economy?

Several years ago, pharmacy jobs, especially retail, were a dime a dozen. You could literally get ill at your supervisor and decide to leave and have another job along with a nifty sign on bonus the next day. I'm not so sure that is the current state of things here. I keep getting more and more news stories of Walgreens buying up Rite Aid stores. Remember Rite Aid was the pharmacy that bought JC Penney's Eckerd in the hope of competing with the bigger and more lucrative Walgreens and CVS. I fear if Rite Aid DOES close, at least HERE anyway, things in the pharmacy market will become more grim. Instead of a pharmacists' market, it will become the opposite. It makes me want to cling to my current job with everything I have, and it's all due to news and our economy. Walgreens to Acquire 12 Rite Aid Locations

Rite Aid Feels Walmart Pressure (another reason I do not like Wal-mart)

15 Companies That May Not Survive in 2009 (Rite Aid listed)

Morality and Ethics in the Pharmacy

Should a pharmacist be allowed to exercise their own beliefs and ethics while at work?  This question is part of a big debate in our country in regards to abortion vs. a woman’s right to choose and how it could pertain to a pharmacists’ right to not dispense a medication, specifically the morning after pill.

It is ironic that the same liberal and feminist groups have defended other people in their choice to exercise their own beliefs.  A soldier has been backed by these same groups when they have not wanted to go to war.  The man or woman smoking marijuana to ease pain, although illegal in most states, has been backed by the same.  However, exercising your own beliefs or morals about abortion and the debate of when life begins ends when it comes to the morning after pill.  These groups want to make it mandatory that all pharmacists must dispense Plan B when requested regardless.

On the other hand, a female wanting to exercise her right to choose could be met with resistance from a pharmacist whose morals including viewing life beginning at conception.  There is no clear winner on either side.

By law, a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription for any reason they see fit.  Should that reason include their own morals?  Why do you believe yes or no in this debate?

Arizona Academy of Family Physicians

Laura Hahn, the director of the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians is spearheading the argument against the Arizona Pharmacy Alliance's attempt to allow pharmacies to dispense vaccinations without the need of a prescription.  Unbelievably, the pharmacists won the first round.  Both sides are using public health as their argument.  The pharmacists are arguing that the rates of the public health actually getting the flu vaccine (among others) are lower than the CDC recommends due to the lack of health insurance.  Doctors are arguing that pharmacists would be putting people at risk. It's quite ironic to me that the very people preaching about vaccinations and compliance are the ones who just want to make an extra dollar.  It's not about public health.  One point:

Hahn said her doctors have no problem with pharmacists administering routine flu or pneumonia vaccines without a prescription.

“But certain vaccines, for the safety of the public, need to be given in a medical (or) home situation,” she said.

Some of that, she said, is because a doctor would be more familiar with a patient’s family history and the possibility of allergic reactions. And some of it, Hahn said, is that giving a vaccine involves more than just injecting it.

She specifically mentioned the HPV vaccine being marketed to teen girls designed to prevent a type of virus transmitted by sexual contact. Hahn said a doctor who might prescribe this would tell a patient that the vaccine prevents neither pregnancy nor other sexually transmitted diseases, “not things that would be discussed (with a patient) by a pharmacist.”

“Patient safety has to come first,” Hahn said.

Patient safety has to come first?  You are telling me that it is assumed a pharmacist cannot tell a patient that the HPV virus won't protect them from STDs?

What is coming first here is the Almighty Dollar yet again.  Doctors don't want to lose more money to pharmacists.

And YES.  We did take years of pharmacology vs. a semester by most physicians.  Do we claim that the patients' health is at risk because a doctor accidentally gives two drugs that interact with one another together because he/she didn't know?

Article here.

You Lucky Pharmacist You

How are you doing out there fellow pharmacists in an economy that is slowing down? Are your jobs secure? Do you have any fear of being laid-off or losing your job? Do you feel content where you are? On the plus side, it's easy to see how pharmacists and other medical personnel will more than likely be in demand. People continue to age and grow sick. People still need us. Perhaps they'll need us more? However, I am reading from fellow classmates that retail pharmacy is taking a bit of a hit as far as hours the stores are open. I hear that even Walgreens is shortening their hours and therefore not offering as much hours to their current staff. I'm not for sure if this is true, but things are slowing and slowing.

How slow will the grow and how much will it affect us? I'm not so sure that we couldn't find something else if we HAD to versus my husband who could not. That in itself is a good reason to sit and consider how lucky we are to be pharmacists right now. People need us. Even in bad times.

Update:  Three Years Later

I have always wanted to do this and spend the time to tell you how the pharmacy market has changed over time.  Yes, we were right.  Now there are so many pharmacy schools and pharmacy students graduating that the jobs have all but dried up.  You can't find a job.

How sad is that?