Articles:
Viagra widely available through Internet sales
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Viagra, a prescription drug used to treat impotence, can be easily bought over the Internet, researchers report in the October 28th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The unsupervised availability of a drug like Viagra (sildenafil) may increase the risk of side effects, the report authors warn, which can be fatal in patients taking certain heart drugs.
Drs. Katrina Armstrong and J. Sanford Schwartz from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Dr. David A. Asch from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, counted 86 sites on the World Wide Web over a period of 10 days that offered Viagra directly to the customer without requiring a visit to a doctor. During the 10-day interval when the authors were searching for sites, "nine of the sites ceased operating," they note. Of the remaining 77 sites, 42 provided at least some information about Viagra.