A campaign has been launched in Switzerland to warn people of the dangers of buying medicines over the internet.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
Swissmedic – the agency which authorises therapeutic products – has got together with pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry to raise public awareness of the fact that many of these so-called medicines are counterfeit.
The organisers say the composition of many internet medicines does not correspond to what is written on the label. Medicines claiming to be exclusively plant-based usually contain chemicals, some of which are harmful.
Slimming products, a popular on-line purchase, are a major problem. An analysis of 122 samples published by Swissmedic last June showed that nearly 90 per cent of them were dangerous to health.
People who have bought drugs on-line are invited to take them to one of 760 pharmacists participating in the campaign and get them tested for free at any time up to November 5.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Review calls for more efficient health system
This content was published on
The federal health authorities on Monday acknowledged the joint report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organization (WHO). “It is a valuable guide for health policy and it shows that we are on the right track,” Pascal Strupler, head of the Federal Health Office, told a news conference.…
This content was published on
Delegates at the Swiss Public Health Conference 2011 at Basel University have been hearing how environmental and lifestyle factors are big contributors to the problem – as is increasing urbanisation. The two-day meeting, entitled “Chronic Diseases – A Major Challenge” and gathering Swiss and international specialists in the field, has been considering the impact of…
This content was published on
The research is the first of its kind in Switzerland – and in continental Europe – to look specifically into the quality of preventive and early-diagnosis medicine. The leader in this field is the United States. The study, which covered the university hospitals in Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne and Basel, has been published in the US-based…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.