Drive-Through Flu Shots, Fake Malaria Drugs Named "Best, Worst Prevention Ideas of the Week"

A Virginia program offering “Drive-through” flu shots were named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while the spread of fake malaria drugs was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.

BEST

People Roll In for “Drive-Through” Flu Shots

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/virginia/300_Get_Drive_Through_Flu_Shots_092609

About 300 people got drive-through flu shots at a medical clinic in Ashburn, Virginia, on a recent Saturday. Cars started rolling through the parking lot of the Nova Medical and Urgent Care Center around 10:00 a.m. Customers filled out a form, got a quick check of their temperature, paid $25, and were vaccinated; all that happened in about eight minutes. Patient Robert Beasley loved it. “Normally, you have to wait in the waiting room… wait to be called, go into the office… wait for them to get the vaccine… and give you the shot,” gushed Beasley. “Here, you just drive up. You give ‘em your paperwork, and you get your shot and you’re gone.”

WORST

Fake Malaria Drugs Spread, Breed Resistance

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aWdXQmrHzLxA

Fake malaria drugs from China are breeding resistance to life-saving medications in Cambodia and threatening to derail global efforts to eradicate the disease, a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found. Among more than 700 packets of pills sold at private drugstores in Cambodia and Thailand, 60 percent were found to be substandard or counterfeit around the border, compared with less than 5 percent in other areas in Thailand, said Patrick Lukulay, director of drug quality and information for U.S. Pharmacopeia, a Rockville, Maryland-based organization that tracks fake drugs.