From Disaster to Hope

Thalidomide - the very name brings back vivid memories of deformed children with missing limbs, deformed hands, no legs, strange-looking bodies. The drug was used in the 1960s to aid pregnant mothers with morning sickness. The results were sickening. No-one had realised the after-effects of trying to relieve such a commonplace symptom of pregnancy. When the true effects were realised the drug was banned. Never would we make the mistake of using drugs without knowing their true side-effects again. In the UK, which used Thalidomide quite widely, the results were seen across the country. Everyone knew someone who had been affected. Babies with physical deformities were everywhere, it seemed. They became almost a peep-show. You looked away, partly to avoid embarrassing the poor deformed child, but mainly because you were disgusted by the sight. Everything was done to make their lives more bearable - but it seemed like an attempt to rid ourselves of the guilt we felt for letting such things happen in the first place. Partly because of this episode drug testing has become much more rigorous - but it is much too late for the victims of Thalidomide.
Viewing Australian Broadcasting Corporation news tonight I see that the drug is once again in use. It seems that it has beneficial effects on certain types of blood cancer. A woman is seen having treatment and saying how it has increased her quality of life. Needless to say they have built in several safeguards with regard to pregnancy. If a woman is still fertile she must undertake to use at least two forms of contraceptive to avoid accidental pregnancy. No recipient of the drug may give blood. The lessons, hopefully, have been learned. Now the Australian government has taken the drug off the experimental list and made it available on its Pharmaceutical Benefits System - thus bringing the cost of using it down to proportions where it will be viable to use. Let's hope that this time they have thought through all the side-effects. I hope so. If this one-time scourge can now give hope and extra time for cancer sufferers then I wish all those people who use it all the luck and love in the world.