It was a rainy Monday. You know that kind of day you wish you could go back to sleep the whole day?
Well, not for me though, I’ve been at work earlier than usual since I had some cases to study before I started seeing patients for the day.
My study was interrupted by a loud yell from a young man who wanted to get medication.
“I want to buy Beecham!” He yelled.
I stood up and walked toward him.
“Good morning sir,” I said, “Do you mean ampiclox by Beecham?”
He nodded in confirmation.
“Do you have a prescription for it, sir?” I asked him, and he gave me a stern look as though I was wasting his time.
I could sense the urgency in his expression, and as he was about to leave, I told him to hold on while I got it for him.
“Here you go sir,” I stretched my hand to give it to him, but quickly withdrew, “Can I speak with you for 10mins, please? I promise It will be worth it,” I quickly added before he could respond.
He agreed, and I beckoned on him to come to the office.
“Welcome sir,” I introduced myself to him and asked for his name too. He’s Henry and he lived close by.
The pharmacy is close to a brothel which most persons know as a whore house.
So Henry had an encounter with a young lady last night and during their sex episode, the condom broke.
Here he was at the pharmacy so early to get the one drug that does all.
But the question is, does it do all?
I began to explain to him, “Sir, Ampiclox is an antibiotic, that is a drug that kills or stops bacteria from growing. Okay, take it like an insecticide that kills all the mosquitoes in your room when you flee the house. Now let me ask you, Henry, does your fleet kill geckos, lizards or even rats?”
He shook his head, “No ma, it doesn’t, just insects.”
I smiled at his response.
“Why this question ma?” He asked while looking uncomfortable, “And what does it have to do with the Ampiclox I came to buy?”
“A whole lot,” I simply replied before continuing with my explanation.
“Why did u come to get Ampiclox?” I asked him.
“Ahhh Ma, I don’t want to get infection ooo, especially HIV. Dem no dey write am for face oo,” he said.
“Sir, back to our insecticide story, just as an insecticide can only kill insects, ampiclox can only kill bacteria,” I could see the confusion in his eyes as I said that. “Let me break It down for you, the lizard and gecko are reptiles and hence the insecticide couldn’t kill them and the rat is a rodent and also the insecticide was powerless against it too, right?”
He nodded his head in confirmation.
“Ampiclox being an antibiotic can only kill bacteria, not only that, It doesn’t stay in the body for long, at most 12 hours and if you had gotten bacteria infection from your sex partner, it will take 48 hours to be detected microscopically. The other guy, that’s The HIV is a viral infection, take it that it is the rat, in this case, so ampiclox will be useless against it.”
“Ma, what can I do now? I don’t want to get infected too,” He told me.
I responded reassuringly, “I understand that sir. What will happen is I’ll refer you to a health care centre where you can get PEP. That is post-exposure prophylaxis. You are given PEP after exposure to HIV it is also given to rape victims. But before this is administered, your HIV status will be checked and if Negative, then you will be given PEP. I’ll recommend you get to the health centre for the PEP as soon as possible. This has to be done within 72hrs after your encounter.”
“So, sir, I’ll keep this back on the shelf as you may not be needing it, on a lighter note, you could go for a urethra swab test in a week to check for any other microbial infection. Have a lovely day,” I said as I handed the referral form to him for the PEP.
Henry was so happy and promised to come back with the test results.
Well, by the time I finished with Henry, it was already normal work time as clients had started coming and the rain had also stopped, I was ready as always to face the day and whatever comes with it.
Credit:Pharm Gift ihunwo
