ABSTRACT
Background: Drug promotion refers to all the informational and persuasive activities of the pharmaceuticals, which include theactivities of medical representatives, drug package insert, provision of gift and samples, conducting or organize seminar, etc.However, promotion of drug by ethical way is important because it may influence the irrational drug prescriptions.Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate and analyze the drug promotional literature distributed by pharmaceuticalcompanies to physicians using the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for ethical medicinal drug promotion.Materials and Methods: A total of 100 drug promotion literatures were evaluated collected from the various outpatientdepartments and evaluated according to the WHO criteria for drug promotion.Results: Among 100 drug promotional literatures (DPLs), a total of 109 drugs were promoted. However, only 33% of DPLsgives side effect, precaution, contraindication, and warning and only 10% of DPLs gives drug interaction information. None ofthe DPLs fulfills all criteria of who drug promotion.Conclusion: Information on the DPLs given only focus on the positive aspect of the drugs and not fulfill all the WHO criteriaof drug promotion
ABSTRACT
Background: Influenza is truly an international disease. It occurs in all countries and affects millions of people every year. The Influenza A H1N1 in humans can be a mild illness or in some people it may result in serious, even life-threatening complications such as pneumonia, acute bronchitis, worsening of chronic conditions, respiratory failure and death. Objective: To study profile of confirmed H1N1 virus infected patients of Category “C” admitted in the swine flu isolation ward of tertiary care hospitals of Baroda District, Gujarat, India. Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study carried out in Baroda district of Gujarat state, India. All confirmed H1N1 virus infected 54 patients in Category “C” admitted in the swine flu isolation ward of both Government and private hospitals of Baroda district during the period of 1st January to 30th June, 2013 after taking verbal and written consent of the patients were enrolled in study. Before conducting the study approval was obtained from institutional ethical committee for human research. Data safety and confidentiality was also given due consideration. A predesigned semi-structured Performa was used. Detailed demographic and clinical data were recorded. Data was statistically analyzed using SPSS software (trial version). Results: Out of total 54 influenza A H1N1 cases, 23 patients (42.59%) were males. 4 (12.91%) female patients were pregnant. Majority (75%) of the cases were between 21-50 years of age group. Majority (90.7%) of the patients were from urban areas. Majority cases (94.4%) presented with cough, followed by 36 cases (66.7%) exhibiting high grade fever, 35 Cases (64.8%) had complain of breathlessness and 25 cases(46.3%) presented with sore throat. 19 cases (35%) had co-morbid condition with the influenza A H1N1 disease. In this study among patients with associated Comorbid condition, 16(84%) were discharged and only 3(16%) patients died. Whereas among patients without Comorbid condition, 29(83%) were discharged and 6(17%) died. This difference was not statistically significant (p=0.940).15 cases (27%) required ventilator support. Mortality of 9 cases (17%) occurred in the given duration of study and rest of cases 45(83%) were discharged from the hospital. Out of 54 cases, 4 cases had diabetes mellitus and from that 3 case were died. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.012). Conclusions: Influenza A H1N1 infection predominantly affects young age and equally affecting both genders. One fourth of total cases had severe illness and required ventilator support. Majority of patients died within 8 day of critical illness. All deaths were reported from urban area. Most common symptom in fatal cases of influenza A H1N1 was cough followed by breathlessness, high grade fever, mild fever and sore throat and the most common co morbidity was Diabetes Mellitus.