"One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine", once said William Osler. Some believe he is the father of modern medicine. Today, the pharmaceutical industry's power, wealth and involvement in our everyday life in all aspects are unthinkable.

Although their roles vary from country to country and dangers of their products are also not exactly the same. But in Bangladesh we do not have enough reliable data to make a concrete conclusion. Certainly the situation is not good other than the economic benefits to the industries.

Today, diseases produced as a result of medicine is documented as a health hazard throughout the world. US Medline (with over 7,000 articles, reports, and scientific research papers) demonstrated that a considerable number of people have suffered from adverse drug reactions since 1966 in their country. These harmful effects, which can be serious and even lethal, are associated with every side of modern medicine including drugs, other medical therapies, diagnostic procedures and surgery.

Now, one can say that the current medical system is probably the leading cause of death and injury in the US. Their surprising statistics uncovered so many problems with conventional medicine — which are really dangerous. It is now well established that every medication, including those that are supposed to be sold without a prescription has also an associated side effect.

We also need to have data to find the fundamental deficiencies existing in the current medical approach in our country and that will guide Bangladesh health care services towards a new knowledge land.

E-mail: rubaiulmurshed@gmail.com