ZITHROMAX (azithromycin) question

[Firepole]

Would I need a prescription from a Dr. to buy this in a Pattaya pharmacy or will the pharmacist sell it to me without one?

[Bushcraft]

In my experience you don't need a prescription.

[js007]

Usually, you only need a prescription for narcotic type drugs. Of course, in Thailand, a particular drug may have a different name than it does elsewhere in the world.

[jacko]

Antibiotics can be bought over the counter.

[Butch]

Soi Bukhao, either opposite Oasis or on the left just before you get to Soi Lengkhee there are 2 pharmacies. They sell genuine and generic over the counter Antibiotics. I'd pay more for the genuine if I were you, it is almost double the cost however.

They also sell Xanax otc as well, should you wish.

[Grandpollo]

And for 99.9% of self diagnosed infections like all STDs except Chlamydia it is probably a dumb thing to self prescribe anyway. (Won't work for Gonorrhea nor Syphilis for example).

 

The "Z-Pack" is bought by people who know zilch about antibiotics. Increases the risk of possibly fatal C. Difficle infections though, so there's that.

[Butch]

A few AB resistant type strains of STDs kicking about for a while now.

 

I have found that there are a good few pharma's in Pattaya who will tell you what you need if you ask them. They see Strep throat, Chlamydia (despite being asymptomatic in women up to a point), clap, eye infections and ear infections regularly so one would hope that they know what works, but TIT of course :)

 

Totally agree , self diagnosis is daft if you have no idea what you have and put your symptoms into Dr Google and he then spits out that you have terminal brain cancer. Doctors aren't cheap in Pattaya but as we always say, what price do we put upon our health?.

[Firepole]

And for 99.9% of self diagnosed infections like all STDs except Chlamydia it is probably a dumb thing to self prescribe anyway. (Won't work for Gonorrhea nor Syphilis for example).

 

The "Z-Pack" is bought by people who know zilch about antibiotics. Increases the risk of possibly fatal C. Difficle infections though, so there's that.

Couldn't agree more. Self-diagnosis is stupid unless you know what you're doing. It's the reason that there are "superbugs" out there. That, and those who don't complete treatment for whatever reason. Idiots.

I'm not looking to buy antibiotics for STD purposes. It(they) would be for potential respiratory issues. There, I know what I'm doing.

[Firepole]

BTW, thanks to all for your input.

[Grandpollo]

Couldn't agree more. Self-diagnosis is stupid unless you know what you're doing. It's the reason that there are "superbugs" out there. That, and those who don't complete treatment for whatever reason. Idiots.

I'm not looking to buy antibiotics for STD purposes. It(they) would be for potential respiratory issues. There, I know what I'm doing.

Not without a culture. If your physician agrees you should have them why not just get some from a pharmacy? Walmart would have generic for $5 of $10 for 30 days and they would be genuine and stored properly unlike what you might end up with in Pattaya.

Usually when people won't ask the doctor it's because the doctor has said don't take them.

[jacko]

Not without a culture. If your physician agrees you should have them why not just get some from a pharmacy? Walmart would have generic for $5 of $10 for 30 days and they would be genuine and stored properly unlike what you might end up with in Pattaya.

Usually when people won't ask the doctor it's because the doctor has said don't take them.

Sometimes people are avoiding the cost of seeing a physician... and the subsequent tests. Particularly true for retirees in Pattaya.

[Grandpollo]

Sometimes people are avoiding the cost of seeing a physician... and the subsequent tests. Particularly true for retirees in Pattaya.

 

Not much of an excuse for self diagnosis to be honest but you have a good point. Especially with Americans which I infer from his location and the lack of access to health care for so many there. But what's all this "potential respiratory issues"? If an MD has said this is a risk then the MD should have written a scrip for a safe supply (of whatever antibiotic) . And Azithromycin might not be the drug of choice anyway.

 

The problem with Azithromycin is that it's become legendary on travel boards (more the other Pattaya one) as this "kills everything" "Z-pack" which is complete nonsense of course and thus people don't get better, risk D. Difficile infection, spreading quite treatable bacterial diseases particularly STDs and making bacterial resistance more of a risk for all. It treats Chlamydia though, so 2 pills is a fair thing to have IF (and that's a big if) someone is actually diagnosed with it.

[Butch]

Respiratory complaints such as a bronchial infection might clear up with Antibiotics, but it is getting it diagnosed correctly in the first place which makes it important. Stuff like asthma can be treated with the relevant inhalers. Pleurisy is viral in some cases won't respond to antibiotic treatment anyway, unless it's bactrial in which case it will, but getting the right antibiotics for the infection can only be determined by following the correct procedure. Gonorrhoea is a dual pronged treatment using Azithromycin as part of it.

 

As you say Grandpollo, people throw advice around about antibiotics as a cure all after 2 weeks barebacking in LOS when it clearly is not.

 

Best advice is to go and see a Doctor, get a swab done and get it sorted.

 

BTW I'm not a Doctor.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Butch

[Firepole]

Yep, a culture is the best route but, seeing as how I'm only worried about getting sick while IN Pattaya and/or AC my U.S. health services(Dr., lab, pharmacy, etc...) would not come into play. Cultures, for the most part, only confirm a diagnosis made using signs and symptoms.

 

My U.S. doctor recently passed away. Prior to that, knowing my background, he had no problem prescribing things to take with me "just in case". It's going to take awhile before another Dr.(once I find one) will have as much faith in me, with his Rx help, to allow me to "self-medicate". I wouldn't blame him.

 

Inhalers will help the symptoms, of some conditions, up to a certain point. Then, depending on the condition, they can be overwhelmed and, thus, ineffective. And, they don't do anything to kill an infection. It wouldn't be until that point that a culture would be called for anyhow so, still on track. I know that your typical inhaler isn't designed for infections but some conditions, initially, present as things such as asthma, etc.... I'd use inhalers until it became obvious that there's something beyond e.g. asthma going on. The stethoscope I travel with(yes, I do) isn't just for playing doctor with the girls.

 

I asked about only azithromycin because I figured if it was available other, same class, antibiotics, that would be relevant to the presenting condition, would also be available.

IMHO, unless you're 100% positive that what you're doing won't harm you, or slow/prevent recovery, you should have someone who knows what they're doing take a look.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Firepole

[CalEden]

 

Not much of an excuse for self diagnosis to be honest but you have a good point. Especially with Americans which I infer from his location and the lack of access to health care for so many there.

 

This is total naïve bullshit! It has been law for many many years in the US that hospitals have to treat anybody whether they can pay or not.

[Firepole]

 

This is total naïve bullshit! It has been law for many many years in the US that hospitals have to treat anybody whether they can pay or not.

That law only, truly, benefits the completely destitute(YES, it's a good law). If you have any assets, or even the slightest income, they/it can be attached through collections if you don't pay. I don't know the extent of what MedicAID covers but, through people I know, I can tell you that MediCARE does NOT cover everything. What they don't cover is "out-of-pocket" for the patient. I think it's reasonable to assume that BM Grandpollo was referring to lack of access to FREE health care and not just "lack of access to health care".

Those whom are used to the socialist type heathcare systems may not, easily, differentiate the two. I think, as the old saying goes, they get what they pay for.

[Butch]

not wanting to TF, but a genuine curiosity here. I've read reports that some hospitals in the US charge $10 for a paper cup to put the pills in, $20 for tissues and $20 for Aspirin, and that's before you even get into the cost of various treatments and post treatment meds, is this true?.

 

Mrs Butch works as a Doctor here in the UK specialising in haematology where we have the NHS which is a "free" healthcare system (although abused to the point of bankrupcy in some trusts by many "health tourists" and people using it to get stuff ike antibiotics to send home to their families abroad - but that's a whole different story). Those of us in employment pay a % of our wages in order to fund it, those out of work get free dental as well, whereas those working have to pay.

 

There is talk of the NHS becoming privatised in the future, I only hope that stories like we see in the USA for charges etc are merely exaggerated rumours and not true because if they are true then much the same thing might happen over here.

 

Also, anyone know what the entry level wage for a Nurse is in the USA, is there much disparity between East and West coast? or maybe what the average wage for a practitioner / doctor specialising in a specific area might be?.

[Firepole]

not wanting to TF, but a genuine curiosity here. I've read reports that some hospitals in the US charge $10 for a paper cup to put the pills in, $20 for tissues and $20 for Aspirin, and that's before you even get into the cost of various treatments and post treatment meds, is this true?.

 

Mrs Butch works as a Doctor here in the UK specialising in haematology where we have the NHS which is a "free" healthcare system (although abused to the point of bankrupcy in some trusts by many "health tourists" and people using it to get stuff ike antibiotics to send home to their families abroad - but that's a whole different story). Those of us in employment pay a % of our wages in order to fund it, those out of work get free dental as well, whereas those working have to pay.

 

There is talk of the NHS becoming privatised in the future, I only hope that stories like we see in the USA for charges etc are merely exaggerated rumours and not true because if they are true then much the same thing might happen over here.

 

Also, anyone know what the entry level wage for a Nurse is in the USA, is there much disparity between East and West coast? or maybe what the average wage for a practitioner / doctor specialising in a specific area might be?.

I can only address your first curiosity. Yes, it is absolutely true.

Their reasoning for a $20 aspirin?

Pay the Dr. to authorize/prescribe it.

Pay the hospital pharmacist/pharmacy to open the aspirin bottle, pull out, and count the one pill.

Pay the nurse who has to put it in the $10 cup, walk it to the room, pour the water, that helps the Pt. swallow it, into a cup and hand it to the Pt.

 

They also make those who CAN pay(insured**, self-pay) make up for the losses the hospital incurs from those who don't/won't/can't afford to pay. You'd be shocked at the number of people who will call an ambulance to take them to the Emergency Department of a Trauma Center because they have a common cold. Buses/Taxi's and Walk-In Med Clinics will cost them money. Ambulances and Hospitals? Somebody ELSE pays for it. Why pay $1.50 for a bus when you can call an ambulance for a "free, sponsored by someone else" $700 ride to the hospital, right? Your post suggests you, already "get it". I'm on a rant.

 

**"Insured" doesn't, necessarily, mean FULL(if any) coverage for many items/treatments. If they cover 50% of the $20 aspirin you end up paying $10 for it. If they don't cover it at all you pay the $20. If you don't pay they will be happy to take your home, savings, etc... and/or force you into bankruptcy. When YOU file bankruptcy they pass that loss onto the next potential bankruptcy "patient". On, and on, it goes. Then, they get funding from "the government", which gets its money from the non-deadbeat taxpayer, so they can continue to "save the lives" of the entitled deadbeats who take an ambulance to the trauma center to treat a week old common cold..

 

Be it NHS, or what we have in the U.S., just know that SOMEBODY will pay for it, and for the deadbeats that abuse it. That somebody is the taxpayer and double again by the tax paying patient who has money to pay for his own treatment.

 

NO, NOT ALL PEOPLE WHO CAN'T PAY ARE DEADBEATS. IT'S A DEADBEAT THAT, KNOWINGLY, ABUSES THE SYSTEM BECAUSE THEY'RE "ENTITLED".

 

On a side note, I've purchased meds(e.g. inhalers) in the LOS that I could've, easily, gotten from a Dr.(with an Rx) in the U.S.

With my co-pay what it is the cost, to me, is the same as the price of the inhaler in the LOS. In the end, I saved the insurance company the $150+- for the Dr.s visit. I don't have the "Fuck the insurance company" attitude even though they have the "Fuck the Pt. attitude. And, yes, the Dr. INITIALLY, prescribed the inhaler.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Firepole

[atlas2]

The National Health is still wonderful but it's in a 'catch 22' situation.

 

It's maintained by many that without immigration it wouldn't have the staff and couldn't function..........But no one's got the intestinal fortitude to point out that it's the enormous influx in numbers of immigrants and the large proportion of those immigrants that are 'deadbeat abusers' that strain the NHS to rupture.

 

Theres a question possibly answered with a simple calculation. No one will ever know the answer to this coming question because it can never be asked: How would the NHS be functioning with pre Blair immigration levels and todays funding?

 

Theres nothing we can do to turn back time but its too easy to say...... 'we can't cope because the Conservatives have narrow anal passages'

Edited September 26, 2018 by atlas2

[BigusDicus]

not wanting to TF, but a genuine curiosity here. I've read reports that some hospitals in the US charge $10 for a paper cup to put the pills in, $20 for tissues and $20 for Aspirin, and that's before you even get into the cost of various treatments and post treatment meds, is this true?.

 

Mrs Butch works as a Doctor here in the UK specialising in haematology where we have the NHS which is a "free" healthcare system (although abused to the point of bankrupcy in some trusts by many "health tourists" and people using it to get stuff ike antibiotics to send home to their families abroad - but that's a whole different story). Those of us in employment pay a % of our wages in order to fund it, those out of work get free dental as well, whereas those working have to pay.

 

There is talk of the NHS becoming privatised in the future, I only hope that stories like we see in the USA for charges etc are merely exaggerated rumours and not true because if they are true then much the same thing might happen over here.

 

Also, anyone know what the entry level wage for a Nurse is in the USA, is there much disparity between East and West coast? or maybe what the average wage for a practitioner / doctor specialising in a specific area might be?.

 

Yes it is true. Part of the reason is insurance companies pride themselves on lowering costs. The usually will only pay a minor percentage of stated costs. So the doctors and hospitals mark things up much over what they actually expect to receive. It lets the insurance companies look good....

[Butch]

I can only address your first curiosity. Yes, it is absolutely true.

Their reasoning for a $20 aspirin?

Pay the Dr. to authorize/prescribe it.

Pay the hospital pharmacist/pharmacy to open the aspirin bottle, pull out, and count the one pill.

Pay the nurse who has to put it in the $10 cup, walk it to the room, pour the water, that helps the Pt. swallow it, into a cup and hand it to the Pt.

 

They also make those who CAN pay(insured**, self-pay) make up for the losses the hospital incurs from those who don't/won't/can't afford to pay. You'd be shocked at the number of people who will call an ambulance to take them to the Emergency Department of a Trauma Center because they have a common cold. Buses/Taxi's and Walk-In Med Clinics will cost them money. Ambulances and Hospitals? Somebody ELSE pays for it. Why pay $1.50 for a bus when you can call an ambulance for a "free, sponsored by someone else" $700 ride to the hospital, right? Your post suggests you, already "get it". I'm on a rant.

 

**"Insured" doesn't, necessarily, mean FULL(if any) coverage for many items/treatments. If they cover 50% of the $20 aspirin you end up paying $10 for it. If they don't cover it at all you pay the $20. If you don't pay they will be happy to take your home, savings, etc... and/or force you into bankruptcy. When YOU file bankruptcy they pass that loss onto the next potential bankruptcy "patient". On, and on, it goes. Then, they get funding from "the government", which gets its money from the non-deadbeat taxpayer, so they can continue to "save the lives" of the entitled deadbeats who take an ambulance to the trauma center to treat a week old common cold..

 

Be it NHS, or what we have in the U.S., just know that SOMEBODY will pay for it, and for the deadbeats that abuse it. That somebody is the taxpayer and double again by the tax paying patient who has money to pay for his own treatment.

 

NO, NOT ALL PEOPLE WHO CAN'T PAY ARE DEADBEATS. IT'S A DEADBEAT THAT, KNOWINGLY, ABUSES THE SYSTEM BECAUSE THEY'RE "ENTITLED".

 

On a side note, I've purchased meds(e.g. inhalers) in the LOS that I could've, easily, gotten from a Dr.(with an Rx) in the U.S.

With my co-pay what it is the cost, to me, is the same as the price of the inhaler in the LOS. In the end, I saved the insurance company the $150+- for the Dr.s visit. I don't have the "Fuck the insurance company" attitude even though they have the "Fuck the Pt. attitude. And, yes, the Dr. INITIALLY, prescribed the inhaler.

 

Bloody hell it sounds like a system which is purely driven by the bottom line and accountants, a numbers game with the hard working end user footing the bill and getting charged more and more. I expect any pricing increases are not going to be in line with inflation.

 

Our system is abused, but in many cases it is getting better managed. Hospitals are now allowed to negotiate for contracts, so if supplier "A" can supply Aspirin at 2 pence per box they get the contract, whereas previously it was only from a list of approved suppliers (whom the Hospital and local Council directors usually had a financial interest in) who would effectively sell a box for £15. They did (and still do in some places) it from the meds right up to the high end Hospital equipment.

 

The corruption was endemic in the higher echelons as well as from the other extreme of patients literally walking out of the emergency room after being treated, and then back in saying they've taken another overdose just to get a bed, food and accomodation for 2 days.

 

Instances like that mean that I have to pay higher taxes next year in order to fund the NHS. It pisses me off because that money which is literally stolen could go towards giving our Military Veterans better care, both physical and mental.

 

 

Yes it is true. Part of the reason is insurance companies pride themselves on lowering costs. The usually will only pay a minor percentage of stated costs. So the doctors and hospitals mark things up much over what they actually expect to receive. It lets the insurance companies look good....

 

Again, it's a numbers game with little or no concern for the patient at the end of the day.

 

I guess a Consultant (say, a heart surgeon) in the USA must make , at a guess, $500k PA before taxes?. In the UK an NHS Consultant Surgeon gets around £130k before tax (with enhancements) but they tend to work in private health care, which pays extremely well.

[BigusDicus]

I have met several UK physicians over the years who "moonlight" on the weekends, etc in Germany where the "pay is so much better".

 

Re heart surgeon: In S Cal I used to have a neighbor who comes from a family of heart surgeons (his father is a partner in a major practice). Roughly 10 years ago he told me that the average remuneration was getting close to $1 million. I would assume it is past that at this point.

Edited September 27, 2018 by BigusDicus

[Butch]

bloody hell BD. That's just incredible renumeration for a US Specialist.

 

 

BTW Sorry for referring to them as "heart surgeons". I was berated by Mrs Butch because they are in fact "Cardiovascular Surgeons". Many of the top end consultants I know are pretty anal about stuff like that.

 

Apologies firepole, and to the Mods, I've pulled this thread way off topic. My fault.

[Grandpollo]

 

This is total naïve bullshit! It has been law for many many years in the US that hospitals have to treat anybody whether they can pay or not.

Good one. See how many have been charged with walking patients to charity or public hospitals. Lots.

[Firepole]

Good one. See how many have been charged with walking patients to charity or public hospitals. Lots.

Wrong. You're referring to what happened in California a few years back when a private hospital used its own ambulances to transport, and drop off, a few "frequent fliers", in non-life threatening condition, into other districts where they'd end up in, as you call them "public" hospitals. A rare, and isolated, incident.