Chinese medicine is a funny thing. There is still quite a bit of (not totally unfounded) belief in traditional medicines — vitamin stores with thousands of different herbs and roots and such abound — but at the same time modern pharmaceuticals are widely available and heavily prescribed.
For instance, I went down to the little medical store on-campus today to buy some gauze to cover the massive blister that has developed on the back of my right foot (because I’m an idiot and walked about twenty miles in new shoes yesterday). The attendant nurse showed quite a bit of concern, slathered the blister (which is now really just a quarter-sized patch of missing skin) with iodine (which holy shit hurt so much more than hydrogen peroxide), put a couple of bandages on it and gave me, for RMB11, a box of Cefalexin.
I’m not a big fan of taking antibiotics unless I absolutely need them (and I have kept the blister extremely clean and it doesn’t look infected at all), so I’ll probably just leave them until I get something more serious to deal with. What is most amazing about the entire thing is that the drugs were only RMB11, a bit less than $1.50, for 24 capsules. How much do you think those would cost (even in generic) in the United States?
Hey, if you get the common flu while you’re there, you can probably get some ‘gang kang.’ It’s Amantadine Hydrochloride. It’s a known antiviral agent that prevents influenza type B from entering healthy cells. (type B is the common type). I’m sure it’s really cheap there. I got it in Toronto for like $2.50 Canadian a box.
Left by Eric on August 31st, 2003
I got some Amoxicillin last Christmas for this infection that wasn’t really an infection. Anyway, I remebered that it cost a little more than a dollar at Eckerd’s for generic. Wasn’t too sure though, so I looked up some prices online and found that one could get 100 250mg chewable tablets of it for $8.58. I don’t really know why anyone would need that much, but they it in that quantity online. Perhaps Mrs. Wiens will happen upon this entry and set everything straight.
Left by David on August 31st, 2003
Actually we were discussing it last night with John, and she said that the drug he got would be about $15 american. And oh yeah, it was completely unnecessary for the issue, and she was flabbergasted by the fact that a nurse could just hand you something like that.
Left by Jordan on August 31st, 2003