“Doctor, please, give me this drug I saw it on the Internet, yes, on Google”. “I read on a site that there was a new drug, prescribe it for me doctor”. “Doctor, I saw it on TV in "The Doctors" series”.
Many patients in Algeria go directly to the pharmacy to buy medicine without consulting a doctor. Well, in fact they consult Dr. Google's clinic, where they neither need to wait for their turn nor pay the price of the consultation, and medication is prescribed for free. And as many pharmacies sell drugs without asking for the doctor’s prescription, so it's easy.
But what people do not know, are the consequences and the effects that can have drugs used without medical advice.
Many people prefer Google to public or private doctors
S. K., aged 40, a computer engineer from Kolea, told us that whenever he felt ill, he consulted Dr. Google. He consults the Google search engine on his illness, and then buy medicines at the pharmacy on the corner, since the pharmacist sells without requesting the order.
A. C., 25, says he rarely consults doctors. Each time I feel sick, I call my uncle, a doctor in Setif. I told him everything and he prescribed medication that I buy at the chemist.
The professor failed ... Google was able to heal!
The young “N. K.”, who lives in the district of Bab El Oued, spastic, who moves on a wheelchair, says that the professor who followed his case, at the University Hospital of Beni Messous, could do nothing for him. He stayed in the hospital for a month without results. The doctor told him that his case was hopeless. A month later, a relative directed him to a neurologist at the University Hospital of Bachdjarah.
This latter prescribed him some antibiotics and the young man began to move his lower limbs gradually.
It turned out that the doctor was following instructions provided on Google for the treatment of some cases like this one. The doctor then informed his patient that his paralysis was caused by the bite of an insect when he practiced sport in the forest of Bouchaoui, west of Algiers.
Happy, the young man replied: Hamdoulillah (thanks God), we have Dr. Google!
Ennahar / Asma Menouar
Many patients in Algeria go directly to the pharmacy to buy medicine without consulting a doctor. Well, in fact they consult Dr. Google's clinic, where they neither need to wait for their turn nor pay the price of the consultation, and medication is prescribed for free. And as many pharmacies sell drugs without asking for the doctor’s prescription, so it's easy.
But what people do not know, are the consequences and the effects that can have drugs used without medical advice.
Many people prefer Google to public or private doctors
S. K., aged 40, a computer engineer from Kolea, told us that whenever he felt ill, he consulted Dr. Google. He consults the Google search engine on his illness, and then buy medicines at the pharmacy on the corner, since the pharmacist sells without requesting the order.
A. C., 25, says he rarely consults doctors. Each time I feel sick, I call my uncle, a doctor in Setif. I told him everything and he prescribed medication that I buy at the chemist.
The professor failed ... Google was able to heal!
The young “N. K.”, who lives in the district of Bab El Oued, spastic, who moves on a wheelchair, says that the professor who followed his case, at the University Hospital of Beni Messous, could do nothing for him. He stayed in the hospital for a month without results. The doctor told him that his case was hopeless. A month later, a relative directed him to a neurologist at the University Hospital of Bachdjarah.
This latter prescribed him some antibiotics and the young man began to move his lower limbs gradually.
It turned out that the doctor was following instructions provided on Google for the treatment of some cases like this one. The doctor then informed his patient that his paralysis was caused by the bite of an insect when he practiced sport in the forest of Bouchaoui, west of Algiers.
Happy, the young man replied: Hamdoulillah (thanks God), we have Dr. Google!
Ennahar / Asma Menouar