Medication

[stattointhailand]

My 11 yr old daughter has got a cold (nothing spectacular, just a common cold, sniffles sneezes and a bit of ear ache)
She was home from school yesterday, but due to exams Thurs/Fri I sent her back today as she seemed a bit better.
Mrs Statts gets phone call from school lunchtime to come and get her as she is Ill
Mum from Mrs Statts instills fear of Buddah into Mrs by insisting its probably Covid, so Mrs takes daughter to Hospital to make sure....... it's a cold (not a great surprise to us Brits who used to spend about 6 months of every year suffering from them)
Comes home with the following medication"=

1) Tablets that need to be taken 2 times a day until finished
2) Tablet that needs to be taken once before sleep
3 )Ear drops to be inserted 4 times a day AM/lunch/aft/evening
4) Medicine one spoonful if coughing
5) Tablet to be taken every 8 hrs (for runny nose)
6 )Paracetamol to be taken at 6 hr intervals if reqd
7) Nose spray inhailer to be used every night before teeth clean and bed
Tablet to be taken if symptoms continue
9) Tablet to be taken if she has any problems breathing

9 separate medications to treat a cold, is the world going medication mad or just Udon

[Niggly]

Watch out for those that are or contain antibiotics. Pharmacies & doctors seem to dish them out like smarties here whether they’re effective for the ailment or not. The risk is if the full dose is not taken then the patient starts to build an immunity so they’re not effective when really needed.

The Girl grabbed a cactus a while back & we thought we’d got all the bits out but little septic spots formed a day or so later. Off to the hospital we trot & they remove the last bits & then prescribe 3 oral & 2 topical antibiotics to be taken over the following week

[Wee Jimmy]

With amount of medication given here these doctors must be on commission

[Bandung_Dero]

They are! I now take my own dressings to BKK Hospital on my weekly doctors inspection. Charged me 950 Baht for sterile dressings I can buy through Lazada for 279 Baht before the nurses dropped the hint.

[udonfox]

It's been a long time ago, maybe 13 or 14 years back, I had an infection in my ears. Went to a specialist doctor in town. 7 different lots of medication, 6 of which were pills. The bill came to 900 bt. A lot of money back then. He took me to the cleaners. Lesson learnt.

[stattointhailand]

Learnt the lesson very quickly not to visit "International" style hospitals if you dont want your wallet operated on.

The B30 card works wonders

May take a bit longer at times, but nearly always same doctors just different venue and price scale

[Khun Paul]

It was explained to me by my sister ( A doctor ) that Anti-biotics although good are in fact often your worse nightmare. Insofar that although they do in fact assist in the recuperation form illnesses and operations and the like they are like a double edged sword.
In simple terms ,Anti-biotics are designed to root out Bad Bugs and contain them and in most cases destroy said BAD BUGS, however Anti-Biotics ( AB ) are not that clever and in fact happily destroy many of the good bugs running around your body as well . Now in the normal course of events, your body houses good and bad bugs, the Good Bugs assisting and enabling good health the Bad Bugs the opposite, normally controlled by White cells which devour them 99% of the time . When injury occurs be that pysical damage or intrusion by something else ( including viruses) the body goes into overdrive to deal with the influx of Bad Bugs. AB known to be a Doctors stop gap treatment is administered freely and the Patient gets better normal. However what people do not realise that your built in immunity has been compromised as your Friendly Good Bugs have also been eradicated and the bodies capability to deal with anything from Bad Food to general bad Bugs is lowered, after an operation, fopr up to six months until the Good Bugs get back up to strength.
Late in 2008/9 I did news report on Antibiotics and Thailand was one of the places where the over subscription of AB was dangerous to the General health of the Population.
If when we think of it a minor stomach problem in most leads to a mass charge to the Doctors and what do they inject or subscribe ....ANTI-BIOTICS, most people I know trot off at least every two months, often more to seek help. When water for 24-48 hours will flush out the system and back to normal with NO compromising of Good Bugs ,

We has a species are dangerously close to becoming a species that will have killed itself off BECAUSE of our belief that5 we can cure everything when in fact all we are doing is ensuring the illnesses and Viruses mutate into a stronger ( bad bug ) which is Anti-biotic resistant , which according to the WHO is already happening .

[Stantheman]

Just to clarify antibiotics do nothing for a virus and yet Doctors will prescribe for a viral cold just to please a patient

[Khun Paul]

Just to clarify antibiotics do nothing for a virus and yet Doctors will prescribe for a viral cold just to please a patient

So true, but they prescribe them for the symptoms.........lol

[Niggly]

In my early years travelling around Thailand I was told by the Doc in the UK to take a Doxycycline tablet everyday to prevent malaria. They were hugely expenchip on private prescription & I had to take them for something like 3 weeks before & 3 weeks after the trip so I decided to just get enough for before & try & buy the rest when I got here which turned out easy enough over the counter in a Big C.
I later found out these are antibiotics.
Don’t think it did my insides any good for a few years after

[stattointhailand]

"Don’t think it did my insides any good for a few years after"

I suspect the beer & dunkin donughts didn't really help your "insides" either

[Niggly]

^ I think they did me better than the unnecessary antibiotics

[Khun Paul]

As Thailand has no high recorded incidents oif Malaria, I am surprised you took any. Malaya has malaria but not Thailand, I was more interested in getting my Hep A and B jabs up to date as Hepatitis is a favoured vehicle by which other horrible illnesses latch onto to gain access into a human body .

[Niggly]

^ The doctor (English in the UK, NHS practice) prescribed them when I went to get my health card updated at the travel clinic before departure so nothing really surprising there.
I don’t really see the need to challenge health professionals, after all, they’ve put the time in & I haven’t

[samster]

When I first came to Udon, my doctor googled a map of the world to see where it was. The map showed malaria zones with Thailand OK and Laos not. At the time I couldn't really understand how a mosquito respected international borders but, clearly they do because he decided I didnt need anti malarial medication.

[Niggly]

If I remember correctly mine was before ready access to Google Maps so the doc consulted a hard copy map which I think must have been regularly sent out by WHO. It also showed Thailand as being mostly okay but I was intending to go in close proximity of Laos which was a red zone so he told me to take tablets which I later found out to be Doxycycline.
Me & Mrs N used to take a few trips to Laos as well so it seemed right on the information available.
It’s strange how mosquitos haven’t evolved enough to think about flying across the river for fresh meat


Seeing as we seem to be veering off towards mosquitos, it’ll probably prompt a diatribe about Dengue from the usual suspect. He has a sister you know

[GT93]

We shouldn't be too trusting of health professionals:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-ri ... 238a992fd6

[Khun Paul]

I agree that Thailand down South as a Malarial problem due to the near vicinity to Malayasia, however according to a friend over 40 years ago , Thailand was relatively Malaria free apart from some border areas . What the Health Professionals do not tell you is more important I feel. Most illnesses do not respect borders and as Europeans ( unless you served in HM Forces ) will not have enough vaccinations to stop many illnesses. I remember before going to Malaya and Hong Kong, being subject to nearly 15 vaccinations of one sort or another over a four week period . Dates of last vaccination ignored, just proffer the arm or in one case the butt ( yellow fever ) for injections. I also remember daily while in the jungle, daily a Malaria tablet and a salt tablet at breakfast given and swallowed in front of the Officer of the day .

[rick]

last time i took antibiotics was about 9 years ago for a tooth absess (just bought over the counter). Colds - just sit it out with hot drinks and tissues. Stomach upsets/food poisoning - usually clears up within 24 hours, no medication taken in the last 12 years. My wife once cane back from the pharmacy with 5 different types of pills for me (i hadn't asked!) - I threw the lot away as none were in original packaging.

Malaria - Malaysia is officially Malaria free since 2018, but this is for human to human transmission, it does have a steady rate of imported cases and a species from Monkeys (you can catch it but not infect other people). Laos - well it has a fairly low rate and areas across the Mekong North of Nong Khai are Malaria free; reported deaths are low (2 in 2017). Official WHO data.