title: Method for detecting health injury from prescriptions at a pharmacy.
abstract: A method is proposed to detect the abnormal situations of people's health in case of the unexpected outbreak of a disease by monitoring the daily variations in the prescriptions at a pharmacy. The abnormal situations are defined as the situations which are not included in the majority (99.9%) of the normal situations. An epidemic probably caused by infectious micro-organisms in a terrorist attack is taken as an example. The drugs for the typical symptoms are monitored: influenza anti-viral agent and common cold drug. This paper demonstrates that the border between the normal and abnormal situations corresponds to the detection limit which is a fundamental concept in analytical chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Tanashi Yakuhin Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
authors.forename: Kazushige
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ijuin
authors.forename: Fumiyo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kusu
authors.forename: Rieko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.forename: Yuzuru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashi
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D023482:Bioterrorism / Q000517:prevention & control; D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical; D003139:Common Cold / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D010604:Pharmacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents