How Norway Fought Staph Infections 595
eldavojohn writes "Studies are showing that Norway's dirtiest hospitals are actually cleaner than most other countries', and the reason for this is that Norwegians stopped taking antibiotics. A number of factors like paid sick leave and now restrictions on advertising for drugs make Norway an anomaly when it comes to diseases like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A Norwegian doctor explains, 'We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever. We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.' Norway is the most MRSA free country in the world. In a country like Japan, where 17,000 die from MRSA every year, 'doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients.'"
This will work until Big Pharm (tm) patents it. (Score:4, Funny)
I can see it now: Method and process for reducing MRSA infections by not using drugs.
Don't even try it without paying.
Re:This will work until Big Pharm (tm) patents it. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The People Problem (Score:5, Funny)
I take as many antibiotics as possible specifically to breed better super bugs.
And only a time travelling Bruce Willis can stop me now.
Re:This article is so RIGHT (Score:4, Funny)
'Doctors prescribe antibiotics not because they are necessary, but because they are heckled by patients who want a prescription to justify their trip to the doctor's office and because they are encouraged by pharmaceutical companies to move their products.'
It appears to me that training in professional ethics should be included in the medical curriculum and perhaps required (and enforced) for licensing.
Punny... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If this is what Universal Health Care is like.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stop with the drugs already (Score:1, Funny)
I had H1N1 a few weeks ago and lived through it just fine.
Damn that's so unfair! I caught it a month ago and died within 3 weeks. :(
Re:The People Problem (Score:3, Funny)
I've always subscribed to the notion that any company should be able to truthfully advertise their product whenever and however they see fit, with two notable exceptions:
1) Interstate billboards
2) Pharmaceuticals
Seriously, in what universe is it either ethical to advertise a medical treatment directly to the masses? Every prime-time TV commercial is engineered for the specific purpose of duping your subconscious into thinking, "hey, if I buy that product, I'll be happier and better-looking." And that's fine. If you can be so easily persuaded to buy something you don't need and not learn your lesson after it fails to turn you into a basketball star, I really have little sympathy.
But I've seen commercials that show people dancing in flower fields, sailing on the ocean, smiling, and all around having a generally good time and in the whole 30 seconds, they never once said what the drug was for. They just direct you to, "Ask your doctor about Fukitol [meph.pri.ee] today." For all I know it was a new contraceptive of some sort. (In which case, it might have been a rare case of truth in advertising.)
It should always be the doctor's place to say, "Well, it looks like your problem is such-and-such, now here's a prescription for a drug whose name you're too illiterate to pronounce." Drug companies have no business trying to market their drugs directly to the unwashed masses. To do so is reckless and immoral. Medicine should always be a science first.
Re:Stop with the drugs already (Score:5, Funny)
Lies,
That writing was far to neat for any kind of doctor.