Read the text. It's a common knowledge that people who are sick may take me­dicine to help them feel better

It's a common knowledge that people who are sick may take me­dicine to help them feel better. Medicine is made of drugs. A drug is a chemical that changes the way your body works. A drug can change the way you feel. It can also change the way you think.

Why Medicine Is Used Medicine can help cure some kinds of diseases. To cure means to heal. Suppose you had an earache caused by bacteria. The doctor gives your father medicine for you to take. The medicine kills the bacteria. Your earache is gone and you feel better.

Medicine cannot cure all kinds of diseases. Sometimes medicine can relieve the symptoms of a disease.

A symptom is a signal that you may be sick. A fever and body aches may be symptoms of the flu. Medicine cannot cure the flu. They can only relieve the symptoms. When you relieve the symptoms you feel better. At the same time, your body's defenses fight the flu viruses.

Some people must take medicine every day. Their diseases can't be cured. Medicine helps keep these diseases under control. Some kinds of heart diseases can't be cured. People with a heart disease may take medicine to keep their hearts beating in the right way.

Sometimes medicine can be used to prevent a disease. A vaccine is a type of medicine. It helps your body produce antibodies. Anti­bodies protect you from one kind of disease. You should have had a measles vaccine. If so, you will not get measles.

Over-the-Counter Drugs

Over-the-counter drugs are drugs that can be bought without a prescription. These drugs can be found on the shelves in some stores. A drugstore can sell over-the-counter drugs. Grocery and de­partment stores may also sell over-the-counter drugs.

Over-the-counter drugs can help people. They can help sick people feel better. These drugs can also be harmful. Over-the-counter drugs must be used in the right way. The directions for safe use should be followed.

At the Chemist's

Chemists' shops are specialized shops where medicines are sold. Chemists' shops are usually situated on the ground floor. They have a hall for visitors, two departments for selling drugs, and proper working rooms.

The department for reception of prescriptions and delivery of drugs is called a prescription department. The other one is called a chemist's department. In the prescription department medicines are sold or made up according to prescriptions. In the chemist's department you can buy medicines without prescriptions. In this department different things for medical care and medicinal plants are bought.

The working rooms of a chemist's include rooms for washing, drying and sterilization of glassware, an analytical laboratory, a room for storing medicines, a room for dispensing them and some others.

At the chemist's all medicines are kept in drug cabinets, on open shelves and in the refrigerator. Poisonous drugs are kept in a drug cabinet with the letter A. Strong effective drugs are kept in a drug cabinet having the letter B.

The drugs prepared at the chemist's for immediate use should be kept in the refrigerator. Powders, galenical preparations and medicines produced at pharmaceutical plants are usually kept on shelves protected from light at a constant temperature, not higher than room temperature.

Every small bottle or box has a label with the name of the medicine. There are labels of four colors for the drugs prepared at the chemist's: labels of green color indicate medicines for internal use; blue labels indicate drugs used for injections. Drugs for external application have labels of yellow color. Drugs used for treatment of eye diseases have labels of pink color.

The single dose and the total dosage are indicated on the label or signature. The directions for ding administration are very important for sick people as well as for those who take care for them.

In the chemist's department medicines are kept according to the therapeutic effect: drugs for cough, cardiac medicines, drugs for headache. Disinfectants, herbs and things for medical care such as hot-water bottles, medicine droppers, cups, thermometers, etc. are kept separately.

In the prescription department one can see drugs of all kinds, boxes and parcels for different powders, ampules of glucose and camphor used for internal use; tonics and sedatives administered orally.

The personnel of an average chemist's consists of a manager of the chemist's, a dispensing pharmacist who takes prescriptions and delivers drugs, a chemist controlling prescriptions, that is, physical, physico-chemical and pharmacological compatibility of the ingredients o: compounds prescribed by physicians. The personnel includes also a chemist-analyst who controls effectiveness of the drug prepared at the chemist's as well as that of manufactured drugs. There is also a pharmacist who is in charge of the supply of necessary medicines.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-13