When physicians say no to Cipro, some people turn to the Internet

Online pharmacies under fire for prescribing antibiotics for worried stockpilers.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Nov. 5, 2001.

Capitalizing on the anthrax scare that has gripped the nation since last month, several Internet pharmacies have started selling Cipro on the basis of an online consultation.

Ciprofloxacin is the antibiotic most often cited as a treatment for anthrax, although regimens proposed by federal health agencies also suggest the use of doxycycline and ampicillin.

"I've had several people calling up saying they wanted Cipro because they thought they had anthrax or wanted it just in case," said Paul Kechijian, MD, a dermatologist in Great Neck, N.Y., a suburb of New York City. "I said, 'Look. I'm not going to give you Cipro because you don't have [anthrax] and I guarantee that if you need it, [health officials] will be all over you like a tent, and you will have plenty of it.' "

Public health officials and medical experts wish all physicians would follow Dr. Kechijian's example. They are urging physicians not to cave in to patients who want to have Cipro on hand because they fear a bioterrorism attack.

And they are upset that Internet pharmacies make it easy for people whose doctors rejected their requests for Cipro to get it anyway. Most of those pharmacies sell prescriptions without seeing the buyers or first establishing a physician-patient relationship.

More than 30 online pharmacies are selling Cipro, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards, which investigates improper online prescribing by physicians and turns over information to its member boards for further investigation. [...]