Antibiotics over the counter - shanghai

[Billyscot]

Does anyone know if I can buy antibiotics over the counter at a pharmacy?

Looking for doxycycline, azithromycin or amoxicillin ...

Any idea ?

Thanks for help

[AaronLIC]

Hi Billyscot, 

 

Yes you can. It might be a good idea to get a chinese person to help because you should run the course with antibiotics as always. 

Feel better !

[abcdefg]

Looking for doxycycline, azithromycin or amoxicillin ...

 

Yes, these are all available here. Amoxaciin and azithromycin are both common and inexpensive. You can find them at any pharmacy. No prescription required.

 

Amoxacilin = 阿莫西林 = āmòxīlín 

Azithromycin = 阿奇霉素 = āqíméisù

 

Self treatment, of course, requires the same precautions in China as anywhere else.

[studychinese]

Awesome. Another practitioner of medicine 2.0.

In Australia I go to the doctor with a self diagnosis and the doctor says well, I'll be the judge of that. Turns out I am right every time. Unfortunately in Australia to get medicine you need a doctor's prescription and there is literally no other way to get medicine except through the gatekeepers.

Overseas I practice medicine on my self, and it is likely a lot safer than relying on foreign doctors. Good on you.

[Mouseneb]

I did that once, got amoxicillin OTC, self treated, was planning to take the whole course, but broke out in severe entire body rash... Seems I'm allergic to the cillins. Had to see a doctor and discontinue the course.

[shuoshuo]

Can you guys share the names or addresses of the pharmacies in Shanghai where you can get OTC antibiotics? I tried getting a few recently for a sore throat and the relatively large pharmacy told me they didn't have any.

[Billyscot]

Thanks went to pharmacy today... Easily got what I needed.

Bring your passport , and have the Chinese character .. The boxes had both English and Chinese so I was able to confirm it was what I needed..

Thanks for the advice ... Billy

[studychinese]

An actual pharmacy didn't have antibiotics? Either they are misunderstanding or lying.

[abcdefg]

#6 -- @Shuoshuo -- Ask for 抗生素片。

[shuoshuo]

Can anyone please share an address of a pharmacy with OTC antibiotics? Thanks!

[abcdefg]

Almost any pharmacy will have common antibiotics. But it does need to be a real pharmacy, not just a place like Watsons that sells cosmetics, toothpaste, facial tissue and such.

 

药房 needs to be on the sign above the door. No prescription is required. for antibiotics here. A pharmacy selling only Chinese Herbal Medicines 中药 will not have what you want. Ask for 西药 (Western medicine) when you first walk in the door. Large pharmacies often have those two departments.

 

You can also buy them at any hospital without being a patient there. Just go in and ask for the pharmacy. The wait may be a little longer, but the stock is more likely to be fresh (not sure if that matters if you plan to use the medication right away.)

 

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Edit: I see from your post #6 above that you tried once without success. Don't worry about that. Just try again. Visit the pharmacies next door or on the next street over.

 

You can always find a cluster of independent pharmacies near a hospital. That's a good place to shop for medication if you want to save a few pennies. Competition drives the price down a little bit.

 

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Corollary: Now is a good time to learn dosage and timing words in Chinese. "How often to I take these? How many tablets at a time? With food or on an empty stomach? For how many days?" and so on.

 

Look this up and come back if you cannot find the information on your own. We well help, but it will stick better in memory if you try it independently first.

[anonymoose]

Let us know how it goes. Because as far as I know, sale of antibiotics is tightly restricted in Shanghai.

[abcdefg]

@Anonymoose -- I know you live in Shanghai and I don't. So I could be full of beans and I defer to your local expertise. What I said above for @Shuoshuo was based on non-Shanghai experience and hence might very well be wrong. (Should have kept my mouth shut.)

[shuoshuo]

LOL...anonymoose - that is exactly what my experience in Shanghai has been. That is why I won't bother going to another pharmacy and make a complete fool out of myself.   As far as I know, smaller cities offer OTC antibiotics but each time I've asked for antibiotics in Shanghai, the pharmacists look at me like I am not aware that antibiotics are prescription meds. Haha. Well, my sore throat is gone but my sinuses are still swollen, I guess I've just had another bout of bacterial infections without a course of antibiotics.

 

But if anyone has a pharmacy address in Shanghai that offers OTC antibiotic (as much as I doubt its existence) please share. Thank you!

[rezaf]

Why don't you go to a doctor? It's really cheap in China.

[daofeishi]

This thread points out a huge, gaping and fatally dangerous flaw with the Chinese health care system.

There is a very good reason antibiotics are tightly restricted and not sold OTC in most countries. When antibiotics are used willy-nilly at the discretion of the patient, the result is overuse of antibiotics, which creates the enormously dangerous problem of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. If you've paid attention to the international media the last few years, you know that methycillin-resistant staphyllococcus aureus and cephalosporin-resistant gonnorrhea have created huge problems recently, and can in part be blamed on blatant overuse of antibiotics, especially in South-East Asia.

I tried getting a few recently for a sore throat and the relatively large pharmacy told me they didn't have any.

Listen, unless you have a streptococcus infection, your sore throat is 99% likely to be caused by a viral, not bacterial, infection. Antibiotics don't help, and you'll contribute to the problem above by using antibiotics when they are neither useful nor helpful. If there is an indication that you need antibiotics, that is something a doctor has to test for, and please for the sake of other seriously ill people in the world, don't go around taking antibiotics without a clear prescriptive reason to! It's a dick move. You wouldn't want to contribute to other people's lung cancer by blowing second-hand smoke in their faces. Don't go around making others sick by turning your body into a breeding ground for dangerous bacterial strains.

[shuoshuo]

Your problem should be with the people who want OTC antibiotics and can access them (whether they use it properly or not, this is subjective), people who have been prescribed antibiotics but aren't taking them properly, doctors abusing their authority, and so on.

 

I'm still here chasing a dream (btw I haven't taken antibiotics in close to 10 years). It's funny how most people like you go around attempting to educate the educated. You should educate yourself on delivery, esp. to someone you don't even know and never met. You read something, it pisses you off, and then you react and talk in a foul manner. Everyone on this thread is well aware that antibiotics are prescription meds, but that some parts of China sell it OTC.

 

Try to fix yourself before you even attempt to fix others.