General news Hospitals are not supposed to be involved in the illegal drug business, but it appears they are at least indirectly. Please join us on our facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning Five people have been arrested in drug raids in Chiang Rais Mae Sai district which netted 200,000 pills of methamphetamine and 6kg of crystal methamphetamine with a street price of 78 million baht in total. A key ingredient may have come from Thai hospitals. King-oua Laohong Hospital staff are suspected of supplying pseudoephedrine-based medicines to drug gangs in Myanmar and Laos. The Anti-Money Laundering Office is probing the financial records of pharmacists and other hospital staff to find out whether they have been trafficking pseudoephedrine-based drugs from state and private hospitals. The drugs are used as a precursor for producing methamphetamine and crystal methamphetamine. Amlo chief Seehanat Prayoonrat said investigators are also probing the suspected drug rings which receive the drugs from Thailand. Preliminary results show gangs are paying hospital staff to order the drugs, which are then diverted from hospital pharmacies and sent by mail to northern provinces. See original here: Illegal drugs may have hospital connection … Continue reading →

1:00 AM Unlike those who must take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives, these patients are cured. By LAURAN NEERGAARD The Associated Press WASHINGTON Lindsay Porter's kidneys were failing rapidly when a friend offered to donate one of his. Then she made an unusual request: Would he donate part of his immune system, too? click image to enlarge AP Every day for the rest of their lives, transplant recipients must swallow handfuls of pills to keep their bodies from rejecting a donated organ. The Chicago woman hoped to avoid those problematic drugs, enrolling in a study to try to trick her own immune system into accepting a foreign kidney. It's one of a series of small, high-stakes experiments around the country that has researchers hopeful that they're finally closing in on how to help at least some transplant patients go drug-free. The key: Create a sort of twin immunity, by transplanting some of the kidney donor's immune-producing cells along with the new organ. "I'm so lucky," said the 47-year-old Porter, who stumbled across the research at Chicago's Northwestern University. Porter was able to quit her pills last summer, a year after her transplant, and said, "I feel amazing." … Continue reading →

OTTAWA - Health Canada is warning that certain drugs used to treat an enlarged prostate or male-pattern baldness may increase the risk of a serious form of prostate cancer. The drug finasteride, sold under the brand names Proscar and Propecia and their generic equivalents, is prescribed to treat both enlarged prostate and male-pattern baldness. Dutasteride, available under the brand names Avodart and Jalyn, is also used to treat an enlarged prostate, a condition also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia. Health Canada says finasteride and dutasteride may be associated with a higher risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer, an aggressive type of the disease that can grow and spread quickly. The department says high-grade prostate cancer is rare, and the increased risk seen with finasteride and dutasteride is still considered very small. The new safety information is based on a Health Canada review of two large international clinical trials that showed that long-term daily use of finasteride and dutasteride in men 50 and older was linked to a small increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer. In the studies, long-term use was described as four years or more. The risk was shown in the five milligram dosage of finasteride (sold as Proscar). … Continue reading →

Lindsay Porter's kidneys were failing rapidly when a friend offered to donate one of his. Then she made an unusual request: Would he donate part of his immune system, too? Every day for the rest of their lives, transplant recipients must swallow handfuls of pills to keep their bodies from rejecting a donated organ. The Chicago woman hoped to avoid those problematic drugs, enrolling in a study to try to trick her own immune system into accepting a foreign kidney. It's one of a series of small, high-stakes experiments around the country that has researchers hopeful that they're finally closing in on how to help at least some transplant patients go drug-free. The key: Create a sort of twin immunity, by transplanting some of the kidney donor's immune-producing cells along with the new organ. "I'm so lucky," says the 47-year-old Porter, who stumbled across the research at Chicago's Northwestern University. Porter was able to quit her pills last summer, a year after her transplant, and says, "I feel amazing." These experiments are a big gamble. If the technique fails, patients could lose their new kidney, possibly their lives. Doctors stress that no one should try quitting anti-rejection drugs on their … Continue reading →

Petaling Jaya (The Star/ANN) - One was banned and another controlled, but appetite suppressant drugs sibutramine and phentermine are still added to traditional medicines and health supplements by unscrupulous manufacturers. This has put millions of Malaysians at risk as the drugs can be dangerous if taken without medical supervision, especially for people with underlying conditions, such as heart disease. "Sibutramine was banned in Malaysia in 2010 after it was observed to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients with a history of heart disease," said Health Ministry pharmaceutical services division senior director Datuk Eisah A. Rahman. "While phentermine is still allowed to be prescribed by qualified doctors, it is generally not recommended for people with heart disease or high blood pressure. "It is also only approved for short-term use (less than three months)," Eisah said. Last year, about 20 types of slimming products, valued at 610,581 ringgit (US$200,000), were seized in the 225 recorded cases, said director of pharmacy enforcement Mohd Hatta Ahmad. "This is about three times the value of products seized in 2010, which amounted to 195,365 ringgit ($64,000)," he said, adding that most of them were laced with sibutramine or phentermine. Mohd Hatta said … Continue reading →

The prescription drugs finasteride, used to treat an enlarged prostate and male pattern baldness, and dutasteride, also to help men with the prostate condition, may increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer, Health Canada warns. The warning, issued Monday, comes following reviews of two international trials. However, it notes that high-grade prostate cancer, which grows and spreads more quickly than low-grade prostate cancer, is rare, and the increased risk of using the two drugs is still considered very small. As a result of the assessment of the trials, new safety warnings have been added to the Canadian drug labels for finasteride and dutasteride products. Updates to labels for the generic forms of the two drugs are also coming. Following are more details of the drugs: Finasteride is available under the brand names Proscar (5 mg finasteride) and Propecia (1 mg finasteride), and their generic equivalents. Dutasteride is available under the brand names Avodart and Jalyn (a combination drug product containing dutasteride and tamsulosin). Proscar, Avodart and Jalyn treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate, a common condition in men over 40. Propecia is used to treat male pattern hair loss. Health Canada says its review of the Prostate … Continue reading →