The 7 most notorious scandals in medicine in recent years
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The first commandment of every physician is the postulate of Hippocrates "Do no harm!" Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for people to remember this principle already in court. The profession of physician recently became associated with loud scandals. Which ones? The edition of DocShop made a short digression through the pages of newspapers and offered readers the 7 most notorious medical cases in recent years.
1. Recycled syringes in Nevada
All of us have heard terrible stories when, due to careless attitude towards the means of safety, patients were infected with various parenteral infections. When this happens in third world countries, where there is not enough essential, this is not surprising. However, it is difficult to believe that such scandal occurred in Nevada, USA. In the Central Endoscopic Center of Southern Nevada, six patients received viral hepatitis C because of repeated use of syringes, and about 40,000 patients were suspected of being infected with other parenteral hepatitis and HIV.
[1]
2. The disgrace of Walter Reed Hospital
The military unit of the US Army Walter Reed gained notoriety due to the terrible conditions in his hospital. They were as close as possible to the conditions of the war - the impression that the bombings had just ended here: the dilapidated walls, on which the fungus settled from dampness, full of cockroaches, mice. In such unsanitary conditions, soldiers received medical care.
3. Children infected with HIV
A tragic and terrible event occurred in Kazakhstan, when dozens of children were infected with HIV because of fatal carelessness of medical personnel. It cost 61 children a health, several of them have already died.
4. A Customized Vaccine Study
Increasingly, publications on medical topics do not justify our trust in them. Especially when they are followed by financial interests and research ordered by someone. Andrew Wakefield in 2004 published the results of his scientific work, which expressed an opinion on the relationship between vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella and the development of children's autism. So he discouraged parents from carrying out the necessary vaccination, playing into the hands of the lawyer's office, which was preparing a case against the vaccine manufacturers.
5. Softball and drugs
In 2003, the sports world was covered by a wave of medical scandals, in which well-known names turned out to be involved. The beginning was the release of the softball coach in the United States. The fact is that the sports physician of the team William Sheer supplied light drugs, tranquilizers and other drugs that are only available on prescription, by their wards. This was the beginning of an investigation into the activities of sports physicians and a number of no less high-profile cases in other sports, in particular in basketball.
6. Conspiracy of medical companies
The law of market relations requires competition between companies. However, unfortunately, there are often hidden conspiracies between the largest producers of medicines. Due to secret agreements between the "competitors", the inflated prices for medicines do not have any chance of dropping. Supplying medicines to hospitals and hospitals has always been a lucrative business. Therefore, the company Adcock Ingram, enlisting the support of competitors - Dismed Criticare, Thusanong Health Care and Fresenius Kabi South Africa - "heated" the government of South Africa for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[10]
7. Bribes in medical schools
It is outrageous for medical institutions in any country to prescribe medicines on the basis of preliminary agreement with the supplier, not for evidence, but for the sake of so-called "kickbacks". Not for medicine, but for every patient sent to a medical school in New Jersey, local doctors received money from the inventive cardiologists of a medical institution. The dirty scheme was opened in 2006. Conspiracy involved 18 employees of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, who damaged the US health system for a tidy sum of $ 36 million.
[11]