of drug, has increased fivefold during the 1990s.
11 per cent of patients entering hospital now experience at least one
bad drug reaction. The author of the A Spoonful of Sugar report, Nick
Mapstone, says: "No one really knows the size of the problem".
Incidents cited by Mapstone include a patient getting a contraceptive
instead of an anti-psychotic drug, and being given 1,000 times the correct
dose of an anticancer medicine. Although there were surprisingly few fatalities,
the report estimates that a drug mistake adds on average 8.5 days to a
hospital stay and costs the NHS 1.1 billion pounds a year.
Fatty food cuts ddI in half
It has been known since its introduction that the enteric-coated version
of ddI (didanosine - Videx EC), though more popular with patients than
the old chalky tablets, still needs to be taken well away from food. A
new study spells out that taking ddI with any food results in 20-25 per
cent less drug getting into the body, and a high-fat meal cuts it availability
in half. Even taking it one hour before food cuts levels by 24 per cent
- it's safest at least two hours away. It is not known, however, whether
these reductions in drug exposure have clinical significance.
An irresistible drug
After nearly two years on lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra) plus d4T and 3TC,
a study comparing the drug regime with nelfinavir/d4T/3TC has failed to
find a patient who
page 11 of 13
/ 2
/ 3
/ 4
/ 5
/ 6
/ 7
/
8 / 9
/ 10 / 11
/ 12 / 13
contents
of issue 75
back
issues
the
gazette
recipes
small
ads
contacting
us
weblinks
has developed resistance to Iopinavir. Not even patients with persistently
