- Hello Jeff - I could not believe this but anything is
possible. They are pushing vaccines today at a pace never before seen
in human history...so even Pharmacists now are approved to administer them.
I simply cannot believe this. Shameful. Next, you will be able to get
a vaccine jab while waiting for your car to be gassed up, or your hair
colored or cut. We've already seen the Flu-Mist being given to children
in Wal-Marts, so get ready...
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- Patty
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- Many Pharmacists Now Administer Vaccinations
- By Patricia Neighmond
- NPR Morning Edition
- October 18, 2007
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- As the flu season approaches, you may be thinking about
getting a flu shot. Today, there are plenty of places you can go to get
it and other vaccines: the supermarket, your workplace and increasingly,
the pharmacy. And it's not necessarily a nurse or doctor who will give
you your vaccine - it could be the pharmacist.
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- At the Medicine Chest pharmacy in McLean, Va., owner
Ed Danoff has been providing his customers with an array of vaccines for
the past eight years.
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- Located in the middle of town, the pharmacy is an 800-square-foot
house crammed with all the usuals: cough and cold medication, and vitamins.
But customers can now get any one of the following vaccines: flu, pneumonia,
tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, HPV and shingles.
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- Patti Veliotes is 76, but looks much younger. She credits
30 years of vitamins, herbs, regular exercise and a good diet. But when
it came to the possibility of shingles, Veliotes was concerned.
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- "I actually ... read about a lot of testimonials
from people my age who have had shingles who had really, really bad cases
and I thought, gee, I don't want to have that. Maybe I'd better go and
get the shingles shot," Veliotes says.
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- Veliotes' doctor didn't have the shingles vaccine on
hand. That's not unusual. Increasingly, doctors are opting not to provide
these vaccines because reimbursement from private insurance and Medicare
is often inadequate.
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- There are difficulties storing the vaccines, especially
the new shingles vaccine, which must be kept frozen - and most vaccines
have to be refrigerated. And because pharmacies are better able to make
up any losses by selling "other" merchandise, they can take a
greater financial risk than doctors.
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- Training Pharmacists to Provide Vaccines
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- The American Pharmacists Association reports the number
of states allowing pharmacists like Danoff to provide vaccines has more
than tripled in just 10 years. Today, 46 states allow it. States differ
when it comes to rules about exactly which vaccines pharmacists can provide,
what kind of training they need, and whether they need the supervision
of a doctor.
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- In Danoff's case, it was no problem getting a physician
to agree to be available for consultation if needed.
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- "This all started at the request of a local doctor
who wasn't getting reimbursed enough for giving flu shots," Danoff
says.
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- So in 1999, Danoff took the 20-hour vaccine-training
course offered by the America Pharmacists Association. He learned how vaccines
are made, how to give them and how to screen patients to see who should
not get them. For example, because most vaccines are grown in eggs, "Anyone
with an egg allergy must consult a doctor before getting vaccinated,"
Danoff says.
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- And Danoff's training has helped him steer clear of risks.
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- "I had one patient who didn't know he was allergic
to eggs. He was tentative filling out his form and I happened to notice.
I re-questioned him. I usually re-question people while sitting with them,
just to go over important questions. He mentioned that he didn't know if
he was allergic to eggs but his mother never gave him eggs and he didn't
know why. It turned out he was allergic. I asked him to go to an allergist
and get tested for it. He was allergic," Danoff explains.
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- Danoff says that among the nearly 10,000 vaccines he
has given at the Medicine Chest over the past eight years, he has never
had a patient experience an allergic reaction. But if they did, like most
pharmacists, Danoff is trained in CPR and has medication to treat a bad
reaction until an ambulance arrives to take the patient to the hospital.
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- Making Vaccines More Easily Available
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- Dr. Kenneth Schmader is chief of geriatrics at Duke University
Medical School. Schmader says most of the vaccines that pharmacists give
are low-risk.
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- "I think it's a good idea from a public health perspective,"
Schmader says. "We try to remove as many barriers as we can to vaccination;
having as many providers as possible to give a vaccine is a good thing,
and that includes pharmacists."
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- Officials with the American Pharmacists Association report
that they have vaccine-trained nearly twice the number of pharmacists this
year than they did last year. And like Danoff, many of them say it is not
only a service to customers, it helps business.
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- "I thought it'd be a nice way to get more prescription
patients - just a way to get fresh, new faces in the pharmacy," Danoff
says. "And so far, it has worked!"
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- And that is a big deal for small pharmacies like the
Medicine Chest, which have to compete with huge, national, discount chains.
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- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15380907&ft=1&f=1007
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:
http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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