farmdoc's blog post number 449

I’ve previously written of ‘disease mongering’ – i.e. the creation of medical ‘diseases’ for commercial gain, aka the medicalisation of the human condition. In a letter in the May Internal Medicine Journal, disease mongering’s described as a ‘tripodal monster’ whose three legs are the drug companies, people eager to be patients, and doctors eager to be deities. The letter recommends any would-be doctor deity to link up with a politician to maximise publicity and thus influence. One of my nephews has swine flu. Because it’s a real disease, swine flu’s not a classic mongered disease. But it’s a cousin. Promotion of swine flu increases the demand for anti-viral drugs (Relenza and Tamiflu) and thus the profits of their makers; it turns public health doctors into media deities; and it allows politicians media coverage to issue forth on a topic they know little about, giving them a false aura of importance and competence. Swine flu is a pandemic, but geographic extent isn’t correlated with severity. This Google site shows that the number of flu cases in Australia this season’s no greater than in prior years. And I’ll bet you anything the number of flu deaths this year’s no higher either. Yet the media attention given to swine flu’s preposterous; and it frightens a public that has little or no grasp of what’s going on. In short, I think swine flu’s a beat up. But all this is not to diminish your illness, Ro. I hope you recover soon, mate.