WEDNESDAY IS IT

It is a Wednesday, the middle of the working week
A day to take a mid week review of goals for the week
Are you on course or do you need an adjustment?
God is with you
Make the best of the day

Great day wishes to you

Sir - JTF

TAMIFLU FROM ROCHE UNDER PRESSURE

British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.
"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.
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Online: www.bmj.com.tamiflu

Culled

ARE YOU A FORWARD THINKING MEDICAL DOCTOR?

Over the years, Medical Doctors have been taught to believe that whatever can not be cured by orthodox medicines, cannot be cured at all. The Medical college curriculum makes no room for teaching in the natural world of herbs because they i.e. herbs are claimed to cure every thing imaginable and thus cannot subject themselves to scientific study; and yet most of the ingredients used in formulating orthodox drugs are taken from natural sources or patterned after natural sources in the synthetic manner. Much as orthodox Medical practice does not give room for experimenting with natural products, yet the Medical Doctor in practice should be a kind of encyclopaedia allowing his experiences to guide him rather than “rote”

It is a basic fact that what ever orthodox medicine cannot define its cause, it terms “idiopathic”

Orthodox medicine makes the Medical Doctor conservative. He is to ensure that a product does what the makers claim it can do before administering that to his patient; he is to ensure that the patient comes to no harm as a result of the medicament administration; but yet in his practice the Medical Doctor comes across certain cases that defile all medications and then get better and even cured with natural products. It is true that there are some health problems which orthodox medicines have no answer to.

When you encounter such a case – of recalcitrant or hydra headed medical problem or challenge which defiles all medications, what do you do?

Do you allow your patient to wallow in pains, anguish and misery, hopelessly watching you pass to the other side on daily basis, or do you close your eye and ask them to seek natural therapies?

It is a really difficult nut to crack; but yet it is not all that difficult.

Experience should teach every Medical Doctor to be forward thinking. A Medical Doctor should seek natural therapies or at least allow the patient to seek natural therapies for health problems that have defied drugs and other conventional treatment.

As we all know, some modern day drugs sometimes do more harm than good (those on cancer radiotherapy can testify to it) due to their side effects; whereas natural therapies “may be” without such deleterious side effects.

Finally a forward looking Medical Doctor should be able to recognize the basic and simple fact that “man can live healthier life without drugs if he minds his diet, his environment and his life style.”

We surely have one or two lessons to learn from the aged men and women of China.

We are in search of the forward minded Medical Doctor who though being conservative as a Scientist but is dynamically so.

Are you in?

Send me a mail.

Dr. Oguzie Jerry - the First: JP, wbi, MNIM, MEDA, MOAP

SATURDAY IS HERE - WELCOME WEEKEND!!!!!! Hiya Greetings of the new day It is a Saturday and the most popular period of time for men and women - the weekend It offers us the opportunity to sleep a lil longer than usual, stay at the family altar a lil longer, spend time at the brunch table a lil longer, take a lil longer time in dusting and cleaning out the house take a lil longer time in shopping and buying take a lil longer time in actually cooking the foods!!!!!! release the steam built up over the week take a lil longer time in evening strolls around the neighbourhood It is a day to finally release the breath that has been held in mid-section for the working week A day to exhale!!!!!! It is Saturday people Oh, such a happy day!!!!!!!! Have a sweet weekend Ambassador, Sir, Dr. Jerry - the First Oguzie: JP

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THANK GOD IT IS FRIDAY - TGIF And there it is again FRIDAY The beginning of the weekend and the period of rest for the Civil Servant or the Public Servant who is working for another. It is a day that most people usually look up to because it affords them the opportunity to make a quick trip to visit with loved ones and friends, it also affords some others the opportunity to actually rest from the hustle and bustle of the working week Whatever you decide to do for the weekend, just be your best at it. Once again, thank God it is Friday and I wish you a helluva of a weekend. Sir, Dr. Jerry - the First, Oguzie: JP