| Viagra for a Little Boy
Date: April 11, 2006
The 13 months old boy Min-seok takes Viagra every day! This is a fact about a Korean toddler who is suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Patients who are suffering from this disease have congenitally high blood pressure in the artery leading to the lung, which prevents inhaled oxygen from spreading throughout the body through the bloodstream. Surgery cannot cure it, but Viagra can, as Viagra stimulate erection by expanding the penile artery, also helps expand the pulmonary artery. Viagra cannot cause an erection until someone is sexually aroused.
Min-seok started taking the drug when he was 100 days old. In Korea Viagra has been prescribed for the patients of pulmonary hypertension since it was discovered that Viagra can cure this disease. But the high cost of Viagra causes heavy financial stress on the patients who are surviving on it. Viagra is W12,000 (US$12) -18,000 per pill, not covered by health insurance and the worst part is, the drugs normally approved to treat the disease are more expensive than Viagra.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved Viagra for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, and named it Revatio which is covered by insurance as treatment for the disease. Pfizer Korea plans to introduce Revatio in Korea next year.
Source: englishnews@chosun.com |
www.viagracare.com
