Mystifying medicines and maximising profit: Antibiotic distribution in community pharmacies in Thailand.

Thailand's antimicrobial stewardship strategy has focussed on promoting 'rational drug use' in the public sector, to reduce the threat of drug resistance and control healthcare expenditure. The strategy's next ambition is to attend to the private sector, where antibiotics are widely available over the counter without prescription. Using ethnographic and survey data, this paper follows antibiotics through community pharmacies, to explore drug distribution and access, and identify potential challenges for stewardship.

Current state of cancer patient care incorporating Thai traditional medicine in Thailand: A qualitative study.

Objective: To assess the current state of cancer treatment incorporating Thai traditional medicine (TTM) and to identify problems in the system, by using the health system framework of the World Health Organization.

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted by interviewing three groups of people involved in the healthcare system. The groups were constructed via purposive sampling of patients with cancer, caregivers and service providers.

'For me… it's a miracle': Injecting beauty among kathoeis in a provincial Thai city.

Background: The Thai term kathoei refers to non-gender-normative females, males and intersexual individuals at different stages of the transitional spectrum with recognized social and cultural roles in society. Nevertheless, kathoeis are only tolerated in Thai society. Many kathoeis seek social acceptance through beauty and turn to the off-label injection of various 'beauty drugs'.