Lawyers and doctors today warned of the dangers of buying medicines from websites after a woman who treated herself with a steroid bought on the internet developed a host of adverse side-effects including cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye, and glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve.
Both potentially blinding and permanent conditions were caused by steroid use.
She is likely to need medical attention for the rest of her life.
The patient, in her sixties bought the drug - a steroid called prednisolone from an online pharmaceutical company in Thailand.
She took the oral steroid for four years to treat herself for what she thought was chronic fatigue syndrome.
Doctors found that some of the medicines advertised online were counterfeit and contained a number of compounds bearing very little resemblance to the description on their label.
Specialist product liability solicitor Richard Follis said:
"It is essential that people protect themselves by seeking the proper medication from a qualified physician."
"Trying to seek compensation for any negative effects arising from self medication after purchasing drugs from these sorts of sites would be practically impossible, as the usual safeguards associated with recourse to legal action in the event of personal disaster would not apply."
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For your particular and major part in all this, for your hard work and pleasant and reassuring manner, I am deeply grateful: Bill, West Midlands
