Strep Throat

Apparently I’ve got it. I don’t get much more than a cold every year or two. I have not had to take antibiotics in probably 15 years. So this is a novel experience. I’m surprised how cheap seeing a doctor is. I paid only $65 to see the doctor and get diagnosed. The antibiotics were only $40. I got middle-of-the-road antibiotics. The doctor told me there were three basic antibiotics I could get. The best would be around $300 and gave me the impression the cheapest would be around $40 and the type I chose would be a little over a hundred at Costco. Actually the $40 I did pay at costco covered Sudafed for $12 to clear up the sinuses, lidocaine to make it easy to swallow for $10, and the actual antibiotics called Clarithromycin for $15. Why do people get $1000 a month insurance when the prices for doctors and drugs are so cheap?

I should probably look up Clarithromycin. The doctor said the three antibiotics he could offer had different “efficay” rates from a low of almost 50% to something around the 90% range. Ok, there’s a good wiki entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarithromycin. I was a bit worried while reading the initial description but further on they do mention Strep Throat. Also it looks like this drug could be dangerous if I had any allergies at all.

It would be nice if I could find the efficacy rates of the various antibiotics for Strep Throat. I see things like:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/strep-throat/DS00260/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

Antibiotics. If you or your child has strep throat, your doctor will likely prescribe an oral antibiotic such as penicillin, amoxicillin (Amoxil, Trimox), azithromycin (Zithromax), clarithromycin (Biaxin), clindamycin (Cleocin) or a cephalosporin (Keflex, Ceclor). Penicillin may be given by injection in some cases — such as if you have a young child who is having a hard time swallowing or is vomiting from strep throat.

These antibiotics reduce the duration and severity of symptoms, as well as the risk of complications and the likelihood that infection will spread to classmates or family members.

One of the interesting things is how the doctor speaks his own language. I had a hard time following much of what he said. Next time I go hopefully I’ll at least do some research on antibiotics so I can follow when the doctor starts talking about them.

Japan’s New Solar Initiative.

It’s hard to believe they are offering close to 100 million dollars over the course of the next three months for an island smaller than California. (Japan’s size is 145,840 square mile where as California is 155,959. America’s total land is 3,537,438 square miles.) Then realize the sunlight and land area is better in California for solar power. If this 100 million over 145,840 square miles in Japan were extrapolated to cover America it would be the equivalent of a 36 billion dollar solar initiative over Obama’s first term. Our future economy looks horrible considering countries like Japan and Germany are aggressively already pushing the envelope while America does next to nothing. If Japan, Germany, and China have all the patents America will be reduced to a consumer nation where we should actually be initiating this research so we can mass market our results to the rest of the world…

It’s not like we can’t afford 36 billion. In today’s world where Bush’s secret funding over 8 years is costing us ten to fifteen trillion 36 billion is chump change. Yet it’s much more than the few million we have currently allocated to solar power.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4BN1U820081224?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan plans to bring back subsidies for solar panel equipment from January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Wednesday, as the world’s fifth-biggest emitter struggles to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

METI said the government would offer 9 billion yen ($99.6 million) in the first quarter of 2009 and possibly more in the fiscal year starting next April to foster use of solar panel equipment in homes.