As if the H1N1 virus isn't bad enough.....

According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic H1N1 flu virus has spread to 206 countries since its discovery in March. There have been more than 6,250 deaths to date, most of which have been in the Americas region. This pandemic has lead to criminal gangs, mainly in Russia, to take advantage of the panic stricken consumers and sell fake flu drugs over the internet. This was discovered by a web security firm-Sophos-on Monday. This firm intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of which were trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu. The top five countries buying the fake Tamiflu and other medications on the internet were the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada, and France. The Geneva-based WHO declared H1N1 a pandemic in June, updated the guidance to doctors last week to inform them that antiviral drugs should be given even before tests conclude that the patient had the pandemic flu. Two of the websites that was found to be selling counterfeit drugs were branded as the “Canadian Pharmacy” and “Glavmed.” There are plenty more sites like these out there and they are said to earn more than $100,000 a day!

I read this story and it made me angry. Angry that people would prey on consumers trying to stay healthy so they can attend work and pay their bills. In this economy today and the job market, no one can afford to get sick. When you try to stay healthy, you take a chance in still getting sick by purchasing fake drugs. Several of my friends at work have told me to take over the counter drugs such as Zicam and related products. With an article like this it makes you worry if the medicine you’re getting is the real thing or if you have just spent time and money at the doctor and then time and money at the pharmacy, to what, to get sick any way because you have take fake drugs.

My kids were sent home a couple weeks ago because they had a fever. I thank god that the medicine I gave them was the real thing. I do not what I would do if my children were infected with the H1N1 virus. Not to mention if they were infected and the medicine they were given didn’t work and they just got worse. I would be devastated. I don’t know how these parents of children who have been infected with the H1N1 virus handle it. Hopefully, we get a handle on all this soon. The fake drugs and the virus itself.