My father died because the lack of drug in Iran!

[wordok]

Condolences. But out of curiosity since I am a physician, what was the name of the antibiotic? And what kind of infection was there that could not be treated by substitute antibiotics? Was it MRSA or something else?

[Irandoost]

Would like to know too, it seems like MRSA is everywhere. Super bugs are spreading fast.

[wordok]

Originally Posted by SinaK

As i said, there are no sanctions on medical supplies. I think you didn't even read my post! The problem is the banks are too scared to carry out any transactions, because they either: 1) are scared of breaking a law because its so complicated 2) some groups like UANI harass them and put negative articles in newspapers about banks and companies that trade with iran, so the banks just dont do any business at all.

Iranian companies have trouble paying for stuff because banks don't want to do the transactions...

Of course the only solution is if US and EU governments go and tell banks, assure them that its ok to do transactions for medicine... but then theres still the problem with the UANI and similar groups...

While what you say is true and all this stuff about the banks and the rest but on the ground things must be different. I mean these are toughest sanctions ever placed on any country. These are tougher than the sanctions that they had put on Iraq which caused a million people to die. In first couple of years of 21st century, the situation was so bad in Baghdad hospitals that doctors had to operate on patients without anesthesia, basically strapping patient to the operating table and start cutting while the patient screamed and passed out by extreme pain. It was all because Iraq could not even manufacture simplest of medicines not even the simplest of anesthetics like Halothane. Though strategically Iran must hold out and not become a slave, but tactically it must fast mobilize to start local industries capable of meeting national needs.

I do not know how advanced the Iranian medical industry is, but if it is the same as in Iraq then Iranians have to quickly move to build a modern medical industry capable of manufacturing all essential stuff needed in the country, since these sanctions are not going to go away anytime soon. These sanctions are designed to be in place for the next decade or two to weaken Iran and prepare it for an invasion. Let me remind you that the highly respected "Federation of American Scientists" (FAS) has said that the sanctions on Iran are currently tougher than those on even North Korea. So it is no joke. The only way, Iran can survive this, is if it starts to quickly build local industries and activate its scientific talents to take care of national needs, otherwise, it is going to get very painful in years to come. It is not really difficult to manufacture the few thousands of all the essential medicines. All you need is a good pharma industry.
.

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Irandoost

Would like to know too, it seems like MRSA is everywhere. Super bugs are spreading fast.

Yeah. We urgently need to pour money into research for super antibiotics. Things are getting out of control. VISA (vancomycin-intermediate S. Aureus), VRSA (vancomycin-resistant S. Aureus), NDM-1 and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). I myself sometimes get scared. More and more strains are emerging that do not respond to therapy. It is only a matter of time before we are hit by a super bug global epidemic. It is going to be very scary.

[Irandoost]

Originally Posted by wordok

While what you say is true and all this stuff about the banks and the rest but on the ground things must be different. I mean these are toughest sanctions ever placed on any country. These are tougher than the sanctions that they had put on Iraq which caused a million people to die. In first couple of years of 21st century, the situation was so bad in Baghdad hospitals that doctors had to operate on patients without anesthesia, basically strapping patient to the operating table and start cutting while the patient screamed and passed out by extreme pain. It was all because Iraq could not even manufacture simplest of medicines not even the simplest of anesthetics like Halothane. Though strategically Iran must hold out and not become a slave, but tactically it must fast mobilize to start local industries capable of meeting national needs.

I do not know how advanced the Iranian medical industry is, but if it is the same as in Iraq then Iranians have to quickly move to build a modern medical industry capable of manufacturing all essential stuff needed in the country, since these sanctions are not going to go away anytime soon. These sanctions are designed to be in place for the next decade or two to weaken Iran and prepare it for an invasion. Let me remind you that the highly respected "Federation of American Scientists" (FAS) has said that the sanctions on Iran are currently tougher than those on even North Korea. So it is no joke. The only way, Iran can survive this, is if it starts to quickly build local industries and activate its scientific talents to take care of national needs, otherwise, it is going to get very painful in years to come. It is not really difficult to manufacture the few thousands of all the essential medicines. All you need is a good pharma industry.
.

Oh No. After reading this I already have tears in my eyes...how horrible...god how is this type of treatment of an entire nation any different than holoucast? or similar genoicides?

[Irandoost]

Originally Posted by wordok

Yeah. We urgently need to pour money into research for super antibiotics. Things are getting out of control. VISA (vancomycin-intermediate S. Aureus), VRSA (vancomycin-resistant S. Aureus), NDM-1 and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). I myself sometimes get scared. More and more strains are emerging that do not respond to therapy. It is only a matter of time before we are hit by a super bug global epidemic. It is going to be very scary.

Afte reading all these depressing posts about people dying and the sanctions killing more people. Maybe we need a superbug to kill the whole human race and just get it over with!

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by wordok

Condolences. But out of curiosity since I am a physician, what was the name of the antibiotic? And what kind of infection was there that could not be treated by substitute antibiotics? Was it MRSA or something else?

He had a lung infection, it is really difficult to read the drug name on the prescription, it is something like "amp. c.p.o.e.xin" ?

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

He had a lung infection, it is really difficult to read the drug name on the prescription, it is something like "amp. c.p.o.e.xin" ?

Oh, thanks. So it seems like your father was not hospitalized, right? Does it read "Ampule Cephalexin" ? The term lung infection is very broad and means lots of things. Has the doctor written on prescription his medical diagnosis? And had the doctor done any tests (sputum microscopy/culture, xray, etc)?

By the way cephalexin is quite an old antibiotic, the first generation of cephalosporins and you can not find it in many advanced countries anymore, not atleast outside hospitals simply because it is so outdated and old. The later generations of cephalosporins have taken its place (we are now almost in the fifth generation).

I do not want to be nosy but if you wanted help to find out the truth about it, I stand by ready to supply all information you need.

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Irandoost

Oh No. After reading this I already have tears in my eyes...how horrible...god how is this type of treatment of an entire nation any different than holoucast? or similar genoicides?

Well, that is the reality. In North Korea the stories are coming out that the hospitals even do not have normal saline infusions so they make them in house using tap water and salt. Additionally they are short on containers too, hence they tell the patients to bring containers from home which usually means the left over used beer bottles.

[Euphrates]

Sorry to hear this Cyrus, it's truly sad. May he rest in peace.

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by wordok

Oh, thanks. So it seems like your father was not hospitalized, right? Does it read "Ampule Cephalexin" ? The term lung infection is very broad and means lots of things. Has the doctor written on prescription his medical diagnosis? And had the doctor done any tests (sputum microscopy/culture, xray, etc)?

By the way cephalexin is quite an old antibiotic, the first generation of cephalosporins and you can not find it in many advanced countries anymore, not atleast outside hospitals simply because it is so outdated and old. The later generations of cephalosporins have taken its place (we are now almost in the fifth generation).

I do not want to be nosy but if you wanted help to find out the truth about it, I stand by ready to supply all information you need.

My father had been hospitalized for 10 days and died at hospital (one of the best hospitals in Tehran), I asked one of my friends who is a physician about this drug and he said it is probably "Cefotaxime", anyway I will find the exact name and will tell you, I'm also interested to know what it was.

[abii]

You say in your original post that "we couldn't find" the drug anywhere in Tehran, but you don't know the name of the drug?

Could you go into a bit more detail here? Do you know for a fact that the hospital couldn't come up with the drug and that was the reason he passed away?

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

My father had been hospitalized for 10 days and died at hospital (one of the best hospitals in Tehran), I asked one of my friends who is a physician about this drug and he said it is probably "Cefotaxime", anyway I will find the exact name and will tell you, I'm also interested to know what it was.

Oh, I see. You had ended the name of this unknown medicine by *xin, that is why I extrapolated it to be cephalexin. Cefotaxime is also in the same group of antibiotics as cephalexin but it is a third generation one. It is not a new medicine either, has been around for awhile now. Let's see about it when you find out the name.

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by abii

You say in your original post that "we couldn't find" the drug anywhere in Tehran, but you don't know the name of the drug?

Could you go into a bit more detail here? Do you know for a fact that the hospital couldn't come up with the drug and that was the reason he passed away?

It was a prescription drug, we just knew that it was an antibiotic.

The fact is that my father certainly needed this drug but there could be some other reasons which caused his death, like high air pollution in Tehran in the last month and the situation of the city during the Muharram holidays, we probably could find this drug some days after Ashura.

[SoroushPersepolisi]

Originally Posted by abii

You say in your original post that "we couldn't find" the drug anywhere in Tehran, but you don't know the name of the drug?

Could you go into a bit more detail here? Do you know for a fact that the hospital couldn't come up with the drug and that was the reason he passed away?

usually special prescription drugs are provided by hospitals only
that could also be the case

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by wordok

Oh, I see. You had ended the name of this unknown medicine by *xin, that is why I extrapolated it to be cephalexin. Cefotaxime is also in the same group of antibiotics as cephalexin but it is a third generation one. It is not a new medicine either, has been around for awhile now. Let's see about it when you find out the name.

I found the exact name of the drug, it was none of them but "Cepimax", today I asked from the nurses of the hospital, the last "n" probably indicates the number!

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

I found the exact name of the drug, it was none of them but "Cepimax", today I asked from the nurses of the hospital, the last "n" probably indicates the number!

Ok. It is one of the trade names of Cefepime, a fourth generation cephalosporin. It is very ubiquitous in international markets and even some third world countries like Pakistan also manufacture it so not being available in Iran is really strange. Anyways, it is not a unique drug and could have been substituted by other cephalosporins or even other beta lactams, depending on culture sensitivity tests. Since you said, he was hospitalized for 10 days in a very good hospital, then I assume that doctors had run a culture sensitivity which is so essential in such cases.

Anyways, if he got substitute antibiotics consistent with the culture sensitivity results, then I guess, the availability of this specific antibiotic would not have mattered much in the end since it could have been easily replaced by competent doctors. You mentioned the air pollution which I have read to be one of the world's worst in Tehran. So another issue arises, if he had any other underlying disease as well beside a simple infection eg heart disease, chronic lung disease etc. Also you might want to look into the culture sensitivity/microscopy results to see, if the infection was a community acquired one, or a hospital acquired one since the hospital acquired strains are extremely difficult to treat even with multiple antibiotics. At the end I would say, it would not heal the loss but knowing the truth will help it.

[Cyrus]

Thanks wordok, some years ago my father had a heart attack and since that time he used some drugs, maybe for this reason he was at CCU for two days of these 10 days, in the last three days he couldn't breathe without a ventilator, I really don't know this drug could save my father or not but I was at a drugstore when my brother called my cell phone and said our father died.

[Persan]

May he rest in peace. My condolences to you and your family.

[wordok]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

Thanks wordok, some years ago my father had a heart attack and since that time he used some drugs, maybe for this reason he was at CCU for two days of these 10 days, in the last three days he couldn't breathe without a ventilator, I really don't know this drug could save my father or not but I was at a drugstore when my brother called my cell phone and said our father died.

You are welcome. Then it means, it was a complicated case (infection induced decompensated CCF?). Anyways, it is sad. As I always have been saying to the grieving families when informing them about their loss, that this is the ultimate reality and can never be denied. We are all going to die some day, just like 57 billion other humans who have died before us. Trying to find meaning in life beyond the day to day materialism helps greatly.

I had read some statistical reports on heart diseases in Iran, and it is on the rise pretty much in line with other industrialized nations. I think people should inform themselves more about prevention in this respect. Live a healthy and conflict free simple life. Health is everything. Compared to health, nothing else matters. Here are some video advice about long life which might be useful to all: (And yeah, get out of that polluted city called Tehran and live somewhere with clean air and less traffic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYphKNWT9k&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbjS_ar4wEE&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3SUdEHpYII&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOHLGrodZ08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9rhIwWJg0

.