How we are treated: Ergoferon. Marines, killers and overdose

Photo of the drug

The description is up to date 10.11.2015

• Latin name: Anaferon
• ATX code: J05AX
• Active substance: Antibodies to human interferon gamma, affinity purified
• Manufacturer: Materia Medica Holding NPF OOO (Russia)

Composition

Anaferon contains affinity-purified antibodies to human gamma interferon (a combination of dilutions of homeopathic C12, C30 and C200). Also, as additional components, the composition includes MCC, lactose, magnesium stearate.

Release form

Anaferon is produced in the form of tablets for sublingual use, in a package - 20 such tablets.

pharmachologic effect

Wikipedia contains information that this medicine is used to treat and colds. Anaferon tablets is a homeopathic medicine that has immunomodulatory And antiviral influence on the body.

The immunomodulatory effect is noted, since the humoral and cellular links are activated. immune system, the level increases , interferon is formed (as a rule, it is gamma-interferon), the phagocytic activity of Th1 and Th2 cytokines and macrophages increases.

Thanks to these properties, the drug quickly and effectively stops respiratory manifestations, as well as symptoms that are characteristic of and . The use of the drug reduces the risk of developing superinfection and the addition of a bacterial infection. If Anaferon is combined with drugs that have anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effect, then you can reduce the dose of such drugs.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

There are no data on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug Anaferon adult.

Indications for use

The following indications for the use of the drug are determined:

• SARS And flu ;
• prevention of complications of colds and flu;
• herpes and also cytomegalovirus infection in a chronic form;
• treatment and prevention of infections in people with immunodeficiency conditions;
• mixed and bacterial infections (as part of complex treatment).

The drug stimulates the immune system, from which the tablets are recommended for those who are at increased risk of infection attacks: people with reduced , those who often stay in large groups of people, etc.

Contraindications

Such contraindications for taking this medication are determined:

• intolerance to any component of the tablets;

Side effects

While taking this medicine side effects rarely develop. Possible manifestation on the components of the drug.

Tablets Anaferon, instructions for use (Method and dosage)

Instructions for use of Anaferon adult suggest that adult patients take one tablet sublingually once. Depending on the severity of the disease, this should be done 3 to 6 times a day. You need to start taking the remedy immediately after the first signs of colds appear. After the patient's condition improves, it is recommended to take 1 tablet for 8-10 days.

In order to prevent flu and colds, it is recommended to take one tablet a day for 1 month. You can practice a second course no earlier than 1 month after the last course was completed.

Anaferon with a tick bite for the purpose of prevention you need to take 1 tab. three times a day for 21 days.

How to take adult pills in each case, the doctor will tell. As a rule, the following regimen is practiced: during the first two hours, 1 tablet should be taken every half hour. After 5 tablets have been taken, the next 3 tablets must be taken within the same day at equal parts of the time.

Overdose

To date, no cases of an overdose of Anaferon have been registered.

Interaction

There are no data on clinically significant interactions. It is allowed to take the drug with other antiviral, symptomatic and antibacterial drugs.

Terms of sale

You can buy Anaferon without a prescription.

Storage conditions

Keep away from moisture, light, keep out of reach of children. Storage temperature - no more than 25 ° C.

Best before date

You can keep the medicine for 3 years.

special instructions

The most effective effect of the medicine will be if you drink it at the first symptoms of the disease.

If within three days there is no improvement in the condition when taking the remedy, you need to consult a doctor.

The data that this drug is dangerous, since Anaferon causes cancer, have not been confirmed by doctors. Claim that Anaferon causes cancer lymphatic system, is absurd, it was refuted by leading experts.

Anaferon analogs

Coincidence in the ATX code of the 4th level:

There are no analogues of this drug for the active ingredient. Analogues are usually called drugs that have a similar effect on the body. There are analogues cheaper and more expensive, but only a specialist can adequately choose the drug. Drugs can be considered analogues , , candles, etc.

Which is better: Anaferon or Ergoferon?

Ergoferon - This is a drug that has a pronounced antiviral effect, but also demonstrates an antiallergic effect. The active component of the drug is antibodies to interferon gamma, as well as antibodies to histamine. At the same time, Anaferon does not have an antiallergic effect.

Which is better: Anaferon or Aflubin?

A drug It has an immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, detoxifying effect. However, it contains other active ingredients. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the optimal remedy individually, taking into account the characteristics of the course of the disease.

For children

Children from the age of 1 month practice the use Anaferon for children.

Anaferon during pregnancy and lactation

There are no data on the efficacy and safety of use in pregnant women, therefore, during this period, as well as during lactation, treatment with this agent is not practiced.

Reviews about Anaferon

Online reviews about Anaferon adult are often positive, as users consider this homeopathic remedy to be relatively safe, but at the same time an effective antiviral and stimulant. It is mentioned that drugs, provided it correct reception, provides high-quality prevention of colds. Reviews of experts also indicate that the drug is a high-quality immunomodulator.

Anaferon price, where to buy

Price And Anaferon for children practically the same. The cost may vary depending on the place of sale. The price of an adult Anaferon is from 200 rubles for 20 pcs. The price of tablets in Ukraine is an average of 80 hryvnia per pack. 20 pcs.

• Internet pharmacies in Russia Russia
• Internet pharmacies of Ukraine Ukraine
• Internet pharmacies of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan

ZdravCity

Anaferon children's tab. d/rassas n20LLC Materia Medica

Anaferon baby drops d / ingestion fl.-cap. 25ml №1LLC Materia Medica Holding

Anaferon tab. d/rassas n20LLC Materia Medica

Pharmacy Dialog

Anaferon tablets for rass. #20

Anaferon lozenges №20 for children

Anaferon

Europharm * 4% discount with promo code medical11

Anaferon children's drops for oral administration 25 mlNPF Materia Medica Holding

Anaferon lozenges n20 tabNPF Materia Medica Holding

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Pharmacy24

Anaferon for children №20 tabletsZAT Santonika, Lithuania

Anaferon No. 20 tabletsZAT Santonika, Lithuania

PaniApteka

Anaferon children's tablets Anaferon children's tablets №20Russia, Materia Medica

Anaferon tablets Anaferon tablets №20Russia, Materia Medica

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Education: She graduated from the Rivne State Basic Medical College with a degree in Pharmacy. Graduated from the Vinnitsa State Medical University. M.I. Pirogov and an internship based on it.

Work experience: From 2003 to 2013 she worked as a pharmacist and head of a pharmacy kiosk. Awarded with certificates and distinctions for long-term and conscientious work. Articles on medical topics were published in local publications (newspapers) and on various Internet portals.

Note!

Information about medicines on the site is a general reference, collected from publicly available sources and cannot serve as a basis for making a decision on the use of medicines in the course of treatment. Before medicine use Anaferon surely consult with the attending physician.

Reviews

I have three children 2, 3.5 and 5 years old. I have dealt with colds, viruses, etc. many times. I noted for myself that Anaferon helps my family personally. It suits my kids. If one of us gets sick, the rest catch it. Sometimes on the second round. This hell ended only after I started giving Anaferon to my children. They took strictly according to the instructions and almost by the hour. After the first course, the little ones quickly recovered. Now we always have this drug, even the version for adults.

I don’t know how he copes with an already raging illness, since I always have time to take him at the initial stage. So I want to test it in the fall as a means of prevention. I hope it will not let you down, because the work is responsible - there is no time to get sick.

We are sitting on it too) somehow our beloved Anaferon was on re-registration, so I almost cried. I bought a drug of similar action at home in a pharmacy, they advised me, but the small one rested without a penguin, I won’t drink even if you crack. So we didn’t drink anything and because of this we sat at home for two weeks (

I do not like to drink all sorts of medicines, but sometimes I have to, I have a positive attitude towards afarenom just because of its harmlessness. Never let me down + no side effects. She started drinking after she contracted the flu at work. All employees had a temperature for 5 days, and I only 2-3. I also quickly came to my senses after the flu, there was no aches. And the employees could not even step on their feet, everything hurt to such an extent. In general, now I respect him and drink if necessary

Anaferon - Loved! I love and will love Love))) An excellent antiviral agent, it helped me always and everywhere, despite the fact that sometimes I forgot to drink it according to the scheme prescribed by the doctor or started taking it when the disease had already seriously progressed, but he always coped with the task assigned to him.

In a word, bullshit

People! Anaferon is an artificial interferon. The human body begins to produce its own interferon on the third day from the onset of the disease. Then there may be no symptoms.

Anaferon is very well suited to ignorant doctors !! They took it and did not help - it means they started taking it too late. They took it and got sick - the virus mutated and this is a new stamp.

Anaferon is homeopathy, although it was registered as a drug. Only registration is one thing, but a really effective medicine is another. It is high time to remove it from the shelves of pharmacies so that people would not buy pacifiers !!

Anaferon, I don’t count the medicine and I’m waiting for it to be removed from the shelves of pharmacies, so as not to deceive people by selling them an ordinary pacifier instead of a medicine.

Nonsense is all all ferons, the usual garbage and anaferon in the same list, I don’t even want to discuss.

The manufacturer of Anaferon registered his offspring as drugs, while for their preparation he borrowed the basic principle of homeopathy - multiple dilution, up to the complete absence of the active substance. There is no mention that this is homeopathy ...

Anaferon is homeopathy, but the manufacturer of Anaferon registered his offspring as drugs, while for their preparation he borrowed the basic principle of homeopathy - multiple dilution, up to the complete absence of the active substance. What treats viruses is still not clear

Here homeopathy (such as Anaferon) definitely never helped, and to be honest, it cannot help. How can chalk or milk sugar or water help in the fight against viruses??? no way. By the way, you should always check the composition of the product, manufacturers don’t even bother with writing, only this can be used to understand everything, and with anaferon everything is very clear: according to the manufacturer’s data, 1 gram of anaferon for children contains no more than 10-16 ng / g of the active form of the active substance antibodies to interferon gamma, which is equivalent to their complete absence

Anaferon is a dummy. Homeopathic remedy. That is, there may not be an active substance at all, and if there is, then in such microdoses that generally do not affect anything in any way. The effect of homeopathy does not exceed the placebo effect (if you understand). You don't even need to buy a separate interferon. Firstly, in order to have at least some benefit for the immune system, it needs to be dripped a lot and intravenously, and not to drink pills, and secondly, science does not know how antibodies to interferon can help prevent or treat influenza and SARS.

And there is nothing to prove simply, Christina. Homeopathy is akin to a placebo: it will help "believers", but not skeptics. Therefore, there is no evidence base for homeopathic medicines. Better save your money for something more effective!

This drug is quite controversial. All doctors prescribe it to children, but at the same time it is homeopathy. I would be glad if, before treating my daughter with anaferon, the pediatrician warned me about its composition (DV is contained in nanograms per gram of anaferon), and that its effectiveness still needs to be proven.

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Does Ergoferon help against influenza and other diseases, than some T-lymphocytes look like sentinels, while others look like killers, what are interferons and why, most likely, nothing bad will happen to you with an overdose of Ergoferon, the site found out.

In rainy weather, it is easy to catch a cold even in summer, and now pharmacy visitors are starting to pay attention to antiviral drugs. One of the leaders in sales in Russian pharmacies, positioning itself as a tool for "treatment of influenza and SARS in full", according to analysts of the pharmaceutical market DSM Group, is Ergoferon, which entered the top twenty among all drugs, and as an antiviral is second only to Ingavirin and Kagocel .

Unlike the previous heroes of the “What are we being treated for” column, as many as four completed studies are devoted to Ergoferon, registered in the register of the Ministry of Health, however, it is often equated with drugs with unproven effectiveness. Let's see who is right here.

From what, from what

The instruction to Ergoferon reports that the drug works due to three components: antibodies to interferon gamma, histamine and CD4. The fact that histamine is associated with inflammation - the body's response to damage or foreign substances - we talked about in a note about Suprastin, but let's dwell on the other components in a little more detail.

These beautiful "ribbons", as if created for rhythmic gymnastics, depict the structural elements of a protein molecule. Interferons are released in the body in response to invading viruses and other infections. These substances were discovered by accident, when scientists in the middle of the last century noticed that laboratory mice that fell ill due to one virus did not become infected with a second one immediately after that. It turned out that interferons signal the cells around to be on the alert, not to stick out and prepare for a siege. True, since many molecules in our body have a far from one function, it is necessary to interfere with the work of the immune system with great care.

The interferon-gamma in question is one of the most classic "immune" interferons. It is produced by T-helpers - lymphocytes, the "sentinel" of our immunity, which notice the intruder and call for help a whole army of other cells to deal with it. To be more precise, these are T-helpers of the first type, which, releasing gamma-interferon, call for help their "brothers" - T-killers, who kill infected counterparts in the body (as well as cancer cells) in order to prevent the infection from spreading.

T-helpers and some other cells of the immune system wear "breastplates" - CD4 receptors (cluster of differentiation 4). These proteins are partly immersed in the membrane, partly sticking out. They help the T-cell receptor (TCR) “pick up” what other cells show them on the “inspection”, when sentinel-T-helpers go around their possessions, checking if the inhabitants of the body are hiding a “prohibition” like a virus or some wrong proteins behind its membrane.

So, the active ingredients of Ergoferon, as it has long been established, are associated with immunity. There are treatments associated with the introduction of interferons. The combination of these words with the word “antibodies” sounds even better, which in the brain of the majority also lies on the shelf “immunity”.

The Magic of Numbers

Antibodies do help the immune system work, but only if they need to neutralize or poison a virus or bacterium. But they're designed to bind to... the molecules in our immune system that it uses to protect itself. That is, their goal is to block the "communication" of immunity cells and "plug" their hooks needed to pick up and check what they are shown during the inspection. Will it do any harm?

To understand this, it is worth considering how many active ingredients are contained in the preparation. Let's remember the school chemistry course and count.

According to the instructions for Ergoferon, each of the three drug components-antibodies in the preparation contains 0.006 g. We will take the approximate atomic mass of the antibody as 150 kilodaltons (this number is obtained by dividing the total mass of all antibody atoms by 1/12 of the mass of a carbon atom). This value is numerically equal to molar mass, showing how many grams are contained in one mole of a substance. This unit of measurement shows the ratio of grams and molecules. That is, in one mole of antibodies to CD4 there will be 150,000 grams. Manufacturers took 0.006 g, which means we are dealing with 4 * 10 -8 moles.

6.022 * 10 23 mol -1 - how many atoms, molecules or ions are contained in the amount of a substance equal to one mole. So, in 4 * 10 -8 mol we will find 4 * 10 -8 6,022 10 23 \u003d 24.088 * 10 15 molecules of the active substance. It is several orders of magnitude less than in a drop of water, but still a lot (water, whatever one may say, has much smaller molecules).

Instructions for Ergoferon on the website of the drug

But what kind of asterisks are next to each 0.006 in the instructions? Reading the footnote written small print: "Applied to lactose monohydrate in the form of a mixture of three active water-alcohol dilutions of the substance, diluted 100 12, 100 30, 100 50 times, respectively."

Universal breedings

So our 24,088*1015 "anti-CD4 affinity purified antibodies" were diluted 1*10100 times on their way to the tablet. When dividing, the degrees are subtracted, and we get 24.088 * 10 -85. That is, at such a concentration, out of 1 * 10 85 molecules of what the Ergoferon tablet was anointed with, only 24 would be the active ingredient. But there is a small problem: there are only about 10 80 particles in the visible Universe. In order to meet 24 anti-CD4 antibody molecules at such a concentration, one would have to make one hundred thousand observable Universes, entirely consisting of the “active component” of Ergoferon.

Unfortunately, even in five tablets, which manufacturers recommend taking in the first two hours after the manifestation acute symptoms, you are unlikely to be lucky enough to meet them.

It must be admitted that the other two antibodies - to human interferon gamma and to histamine - are less diluted, but still present in no less homeopathic concentrations. For example, in the most “dense” version (human gamma-interferon), one molecule must still get into the observed ergoferon Universe. The main and, perhaps, rather curious additional question in this entertaining chemical puzzle is the question of who breeds whom.

That is why an overdose of the drug, as his website honestly reports, does not threaten anything special. If you eat a huge number of tablets, you can earn only "dyspeptic symptoms due to the fillers included in the drug." To enhance the effect, you can also have a bite to eat with a cardboard box: cellulose, for example, in tablets is five times more than the active substance would be up to hundreds of dilutions.

And the most important filler is lactose monohydrate, a derivative of the usual "milk sugar". It will only harm people with lactose intolerance. Ultra-high dilutions, sugar balls… Doesn't it remind you of anything? Usually such drugs are called homeopathy, but the manufacturer did not mention this either on the site or in the studies.

In the lists (not) appeared

In the terminological framework of evidence-based medicine, homeopathy is a pseudoscientific method of treatment that has nothing to do with evidence-based medicine and has not proven its superiority over placebo.

However, in order for the Ministry of Health to register a drug as a medicine, it needs to pass clinical trials (although the requirements for them in Russia are often lower than in most developed countries). There are four completed and three ongoing studies on the approved clinical trial registry.

There are more than eight articles in the PubMed database of medical research. The first link leads us to the journal Antiviral Research, which is in English and has an impact factor approaching 5, which is not bad for a medical scientific journal.

The impact factor is an indicator that reflects the frequency of citation of articles in a scientific journal for a certain period (usually two years). For example, for one of the largest medical journals The Lancet has an impact factor of 44.0, while the average for good journals is 4.

In the course of the study, physicians compared the effectiveness of Ergoferon and Anaferon against rhinoviruses in vitro and in mice. The article says that thanks to Ergoferon, the body releases more interferon-beta, and interferon-gamma, on the contrary, less, but not significantly. Typically, interferon-beta is produced in large quantities by fibroblasts, and one of their types is used in drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, so it is not entirely clear how this, together with a decrease in the concentration of interferon-gamma, should help with influenza. The article does not indicate in what concentration Ergoferon was used (maybe not in homeopathic) and in what it was dissolved, but it is indicated that the manufacturers of the drug financed the study.

I checked the effect of antibodies to CD4 on human leukocytes. But here we are talking not only about the whole person, but also about a substance that is too diluted to be present in Ergoferon tablets.

The next test was already carried out on humans. According to the manufacturers, it was randomized, double-blind and controlled, and the drugs were administered automatically through a telephone answering machine.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled method is a method of clinical drug research in which subjects are not privy to important details of the study being conducted. “Double-blind” means that neither the subjects nor the experimenters know who is being treated with what, “randomized” means that the distribution into groups is random, and placebo is used to show that the effect of the drug is not based on self-hypnosis and that this medicine helps better than a pill without active ingredient. This method prevents subjective distortion of the results. Sometimes the control group is given another drug with already proven efficacy, rather than a placebo, to show that the drug not only treats better than nothing, but also outperforms analogues.

However, it should be understood that, at least, patients could easily distinguish what they were taking: everyone received either the already known antiviral drug Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) twice a day, or Ergoferon - according to a more complex regimen. In addition, patients were given antipyretics (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and other basic flu medications. But to assess the quality of treatment, they chose mainly subjective indicators: not the death of viruses, but patients' reports of well-being. The most objective criterion was a decrease in temperature (but do not forget that both groups used antipyretics). The study involved 158 people.

All co-authors, except for one, either received a grant from Materia Medica Holding (manufacturers of Ergoferon) or work there (and one even is the head of the company), which indicates the possibility of bias in the results. The conclusion is that Ergoferon is in no way inferior to Oseltamivir.

Another study again talks about the effectiveness of Ergoferon compared to Tamiflu, but this time in mice. Here they are again injected with four milliliters, the concentration is again not specified.

And now a little surprise: all these studies were carried out in 2016-2017, while the drug began to be sold already in 2011.

Too "sighted" statistics

But there are three studies that made it to PubMed earlier: in 2011, 2012 and 2014. All of them are published in the peer-reviewed Russian journal "Antibiotics and Chemotherapy" in Russian. The impact factor of this journal is 0.426 (according to the RSCI), and for obvious reasons there is no international citation.

He talks about the study of the effect of Ergoferon on "optimization of therapy for influenza and SARS", conducted in just one medical center on 100 patients. The authors honestly admit that it was open, not blind. This leaves a loophole for the intentional or accidental influence of doctors on the result (for example, prescribing Ergoferon to patients who give more hope for a speedy recovery). According to its results, the drug significantly contributes to faster treatment than when taking a placebo, but the risk of error and bias is too high here (and let's not forget about the concentration of the active substance in tablets, which is not very conducive to effectiveness).

The second study comparing the effectiveness of Ergoferon and Tamiflu included only 52 out of eight patients. medical centers. The study was not double-blind, and the drugs themselves, the pills and regimen of which are different, would be difficult to confuse. The only way to "blind" him is to give one group Tamiflu at the same time as a placebo that looks and is taken like Ergoferon, and vice versa, but the doctors did not do this.

The third study was a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, and randomized study. It tested how Ergoferon helps treat influenza in children. It included 162 participants from 13 health centers. This study also evaluates recovery by “improvement” (a rather vague criterion, you must admit), but in this case, the placebo and drug regimens are the same, which can be called the dignity of the study. Body temperature was also used there, and antipyretics were also used. Observations were conducted according to the patient's diary and examination by a doctor, and according to the second indicator, the effectiveness of Ergoferon and placebo was almost equivalent. By the way, the third study was conducted on the liquid form of Ergoferon, but the article does not indicate in what proportion the drug was diluted.

The low concentration of the active substance, as well as the fact that the substance itself, even if it got into a tablet, should play more for viruses than for immunity (“like is treated like”), makes Ergoferon a classic homeopathic remedy, although on the packaging it is not specified at all.

They argue about homeopathy for a long time, breaking spears, but it should be remembered that official science cannot recognize as a medicine what the molecule of the active substance, according to the manufacturer, has not even visited. Homeopaths sue their opponents (for example, the Vokrug Sveta magazine), trying to prove that their drugs work, but with carefully collected statistics and correct research methods, sugar balls do not work better than placebo. If the reader has a vivid imagination, he may just as well believe in healing powers tea with raspberry jam. Compared to cellulose, which is much more in a tablet than the active ingredient, it is at least more pleasant to use it during a cold, and folk remedies known to everyone and falsification of scientific research at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences warn against taking homeopathic remedies for the treatment of influenza, tuberculosis, childhood diarrhea, malaria and other serious diseases.

Few people would think of treating tuberculosis or malaria with homeopathy, but with influenza and diarrhea, everything is much less obvious. Moreover, in all three unfinished studies of Ergoferon on the website of the Ministry of Health, we are talking about them, and in the instructions these two diagnoses appear as indications for use.

- On February 6, the second memorandum of the commission on pseudoscience was released. Can you tell me what was the first one about?

- The first memorandum was about commercial dermatoglyphic testing - it's something like astrology, but instead of stars at the time of your birth, they look at your fingerprints, and there are commercial companies that say that they know how to determine their future profession, sports skills , character traits, health indicators.

We chose this area for the first memorandum because there are pseudosciences that are already well-established and will not go anywhere, even though they have been fighting for a long time, and there is a new movement that is actively developing, and, perhaps, until it becomes very popular, it will be possible to stop him.

The memorandum had several important social implications. Firstly, if a journalist used to say “pseudo science”, then they could sue him, but now he can say “pseudo science according to the commission on combating pseudo science” and nothing will happen to him. We want journalists to be bolder in their criticism of misconceptions. After the memorandum came out, the media showed a lot of activity: for example, they sent a person who changed his appearance to be tested twice in the same place, and he was given two different characteristics.

And secondly, me and my colleague Alexander Sergeev from the commission on combating pseudoscience were invited to a meeting in the Federation Council, there was a group of people who determined how talented young people would be evaluated when admitted to some government agencies additional education, and one of the criteria that could be used was biometric fingerprint testing. We explained to them that it was not necessary to do this, and in front of our eyes, testing was deleted from the list.

– Is the second memorandum about homeopathy?

– The fact that homeopathy is a pseudoscience does not raise doubts among any of us, but the question arises how broadly this concept should be interpreted. There are two basic principles in classical homeopathy: treat like with like and dilute the active substance very strongly. If you have insomnia and there is a substance that causes it, we will give you the same, but we will dilute it very much. These dilutions are made until the initial substance is completely absent and ordinary water is obtained, that is, homeopathic water, which, according to homeopaths, has a magical property, for example, memory or something else. These properties are not confirmed by anything, as well as the therapeutic effect of homeopathy itself.

Sometimes homeopathy is called herbal medicine, that is, herbal treatment, but at the same time there is a macro amount of real substances, and we have written that this does not fall under the consideration of our memorandum. Each herb needs to be dealt with separately - maybe some are good, some are bad, some are not. We did not set ourselves such a task - we deal with what is obviously nonsense and contradicts modern scientific ideas - with homeopathy in its classical presentation.

There is also something that is not called homeopathy, but at the same time corresponds to its principles. For example, the Materia Medica company produces Anaferon, Ergoferon, Impaza, and so on. The instructions for anaferon say that it contains 0.0003 grams of an antibody to interferon gamma, but then there is a small asterisk, and the footnote says that the solution has already been diluted more than 10-20 times (the total concentration of the active substance in anaferon is antibodies - 10 -27 degrees). It's the same homeopathy.

At the same time, it is completely incomprehensible why these antibodies to interferon are needed at all, if taken by mouth. You don't absorb antibodies from food, and if you eat a mouse, you won't gain immunity from it. Moreover, it is not clear why antibodies to interferon are needed - this is actually a useful protein that is present in our body.

- And at the same time, anaferon can be found in any pharmacy, and doctors often prescribe it, many take it. Placebo effect?

- Not. It is taken for the flu. There is such a joke: if the flu is treated, then it passes in a week, and if not treated, in 7 days.

People start taking medication when they are at their worst, followed by a natural improvement that people confuse with the effect of the drug.

This is a ubiquitous effect, called "regression to the mean." Companies like "Materia Medica", "Boiron" are quite influential in our country, like some others, and in one of my scientific articles I called our struggle "an unequal battle with a water giant." Water giant - because they are essentially selling water that has been dried and encased in a ball of sugar.

What else is in the memorandum?

– Based on all sorts of studies that have been done before (systematic reviews of homeopathy that are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and prepared by major medical organizations, ministries of health different countries official documents), we substantiate that, firstly, homeopathy is based on contradictions with the known laws of how matter works and how drugs generally affect the body, and secondly, that real clinical researches Homeopathy shows lack of effectiveness. Since manufacturers claim that there is an effect, but it has not been proven, then this is pseudoscience.

– What is the scale of consumption and sales of homeopathy in our country?

– Sales of the two largest homeopathic companies in Russia exceed 8 billion rubles a year. We do not want to say that apart from homeopathy there is nothing wrong with pharmacies. There are dangerous drugs. Homeopathy is seemingly harmless, although there are health risks associated with believing in it because people may refuse normal treatment. But classical homeopathy is not toxic. And there are all sorts of biologically dangerous enough active additives, which pass off as something useful. There are a lot of things that are called "fuflomycins", that is, drugs that do not have a proven effect.

– And what about homeopathy in the world? Are there countries free of homeopathy?

– There are largely free. My favorite example is Australia. This is a country with very good medicine, and thanks to it, the average life expectancy in the country is more than 80 years. Australia has been one of those countries where the topic of homeopathy has been studied in great detail. In 2015, the Australian Ministry of Health published a large report on this issue - it is mentioned in our memorandum, this is one of the main documents that we took into account in our examination.

They studied the efficacy of homeopathy against 61 known disease and concluded that there is no conclusive evidence for any of the 61 diseases of the effectiveness of homeopathy. Almost no one uses homeopathy there, it is not included in health insurance, but it is not prohibited either.

- You named the Australian Ministry of Health, why in Russia you are doing this, and not the Ministry of Health Russian Federation?

“We would be happy if the Ministry of Health did this, but it didn't. We are members of the commission on a voluntary basis, we do not receive anything from the state for this. The idea of ​​this memorandum belongs to Alexander Sergeev. She was very well received by the scientific community and other members of the commission. We brought in external expert groups—medical doctors, chemists, physicists, medical chemists, psychotherapists—because we were going to use a placebo. Further, we honed the wording until all the experts, more than thirty people, agreed to sign it.

What is pseudoscience?

– Alexander, what are the signs of what the modern scientific community calls pseudoscience?

“Sign number one is the contradiction of the facts. There is science, and a large number of people from different countries who are engaged in it, are trying to figure out how the world works, according to certain rules: you need to argue your position, conduct research, research must be reproduced by other people, and so on. There are people who refuse this dialogue and come up with some statements that either contradict this accumulated knowledge or have no confirmation, but at the same time present their statements as true. In science, you have to prove that it really is, and not that it is your thoughts and hypotheses.

Another sign is that if a scientist is usually motivated by his curiosity and desire to understand something, then a pseudoscientist is often motivated by something else. This gives rise to secondary signs of pseudoscience - they are not always present, but often. For example, it happens that a commercial scam is built around a scientific theory - this happened with Viktor Petrik, who claimed that he invented super-good filters for water purification, which in fact were no better than ordinary ones, but he passed them off as some kind of brilliant invention and wanted to make a huge amount of money from it. There was even a big state program "Clean Water", but it all fell apart, because the commission to combat pseudoscience explained that these filters are complete nonsense.

- That is, pseudoscience not only creates theories, but also tries to make money on them?

– Yes, that's why there is a lot of pseudo-medicine around pseudoscience. This is probably the richest and most dangerous area of ​​\u200b\u200bit - based on someone's fantasies medications and techniques.

When you hear someone say: "This is our author's innovative technique, no one else knows", - this is already a reason to be wary, because if some scientist has developed a good medicine or method, then it is published in a scientific journal, and other people reproduce it, evaluate how true it is, criticize it, and if the technique works, then over time everyone wants to master it.

When you are faced with the fact that knowledge is, as it were, hidden, this is an indirect sign of pseudoscience.

– If we are talking about medicine, then the supporters of many areas that science considers pseudoscientific – HIV dissidence, vaccinophobia, homeopathy – have an argument that there is a pharmaceutical lobby that does not benefit from alternative methods of treatment and, on the contrary, it is beneficial to impose their products on people .

– There were examples when some not good enough drugs entered the market due to the fact that someone lobbied them. This problem exists, and it also needs to be dealt with. To do this, there are independent checks, studies that are conducted after the drug has already entered the market, doctors notify the relevant services about the ineffectiveness of drugs, violations are revealed, and companies are fined for this. But this is not an argument in favor of the fact that some sheer nonsense can turn out to be a miracle cure, because if there was a miracle cure, pharmaceutical companies would have bought and sold it long ago.

- I'm talking, in particular, about the "worldwide conspiracy of doctors and pharmacists" who impose vaccinations on patients, which allegedly give a monstrous side effect.

- When people say that there is some proven harm from vaccinations, they usually remember the famous story that childhood vaccinations supposedly cause autism. But the autism story was based on one very poor-quality article, which journalists inflated a huge media case, and scientific tests subsequently did not confirm this claim. This is also an example of pseudoscience, when, without any justification and evidence, they slander some method, declare that it does not work, without citing anything as evidence.

- I once compiled a rating of pseudoscience and dangerous delusions, and in the first place in it was all sorts of alternative medicine(homeopathy occupied a separate honorable fourth place). In second place were superstitions of a religious nature. You can believe in anything, but it is dangerous to treat serious illnesses with one prayer or holy water. In third place was ethnoscience and healing, then extrasensory perception.

Somewhere down the list were all sorts of conspiracy theories. I would point out another dangerous misconception - HIV dissidence: this is when people either deny that HIV causes AIDS, or deny the existence of HIV in general. The latter is even more absurd, because there is an electron microscope of this virus, it is known which cells it infects, its genome and its varieties are fully known.

When there are thousands of scientific publications devoted to this problem, and people come in who say that this is complete bullshit, because there is a conspiracy, but have no scientific argument - this is an example of pseudoscience. In this case, this is an example with unfortunate consequences, because denial of HIV helps the virus to spread - people neglect the means of protection.

And, of course, my favorite delusion is the fear of GMOs. There are a huge number of pseudoscientific theories around this - for example, the theory that GMOs cause infertility, or that GMOs cause cancer. Yes, there was one publication that claimed this, but it was made absolutely incorrectly, and it was withdrawn from a scientific journal. There are a lot of myths about GMOs, and I tried to analyze them in detail in my book The Sum of Biotechnology.

Who's a million?

- You are a member of the expert council of the Houdini Prize, which is one million rubles and is promised to the one who proves that he has paranormal abilities. It seems that the conditions for obtaining a million are quite simple.

– Conditions are selected for a specific applicant. If a person comes and says that he reads thoughts, then we will come up with an experiment in which he will need to read thoughts. It is important that this eliminates all possible information leaks and alternative explanations for success. That is, the experiment must be honest and clean.

- Have you already had winners?

- Not. We had ten applicants with very different abilities: someone claimed that he could find money hidden in boxes, another that he could find metal hidden in a similar way, a third that he could determine the circumstances of a person's death from a photograph. There were people who said that they see auras and see them even through a thin screen, so they can tell who is behind the screen. We are doing a scientific experiment, and the result shows the absence of any ability - and the subjects are surprised.

Preparation for the experiment within the framework of the “Prize them. Houdini." Photo: vk.com/houdiniprize

None of them made you happy?

– No, but this is a predictable result. We don't expect anyone to ever surprise us. But the one who passes our test will be able to go and pick up the prizes of all foreign analogues of the Houdini Prize. Their total volume until recently exceeded two million dollars.

“But thousands of people are sure that they saw some psychic do something inexplicable.

- There are a lot of different explanations, because every psychic has his own story. Among them are professional illusionists who show the most incredible things - for example, they can offer you to draw a picture and, without seeing it, draw exactly the same one.

If you spend a couple of hours and look at different tricks posted on the Internet, you can see telepathy, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis there. Therefore, many people who claim to have paranormal abilities are actually magicians. And, as a rule, not very good: good magicians make good money on the show and they do not need to deceive anyone to impress.

There are psychics who work on various errors of thinking and perception. If we take, for example, dowsing or searching for hidden objects, then ideomotor acts are often used. An ideomotor act is when we unconsciously make some movements that we don’t want to do, but at the same time we don’t notice them ourselves and think that we don’t do them. A person takes a twig, this twig deviates towards some target. He thinks that he did not turn this twig, that the twig itself turned there, and so he is looking for water, looking for money. But in fact, he is guided by using the information he has.

- But it happens that they find it!

- If you conduct an experiment in controlled scientific conditions - and such were carried out in large quantities - then water is not found. How is it found out of experiment? For example, they point to the place where, according to some signs, it probably exists. If you dig under a flowering tree, you will most likely find moisture.

But Wolf Messing used tips from the audience. My grandfather was at one of Messing's performances and even participated in it. He described it this way: somewhere in the audience, an object was hidden from Messing, Messing took his grandfather by the hand and together with him they found the object. But grandfather just experienced some embarrassment from the situation and decided to take the "psychic" to the right place. For some reason people were surprised. But even if a person does not want to prompt, he can still do it with micromovements of his body.

If you remove the "guide" and tips from the hall, then nothing will work, the object will not be found.

There are tricks based on the theory of probability. For example, you must guess a number from 1 to 20 and I will try to guess it. The probability of hitting about 5%, but in one of 20 cases I will hit. If there is a hit, it gives the impression that I once met a girl.

Psychics can also guess some facts about a person. Most often, they will name more probable facts, and in some kind of vague form - "I see the move." A lot falls under this and you can always give a miss for a hit. Imagine that there is a big, big audience of people sitting, and you say, "Does the name Mary mean anything to anyone?" - it turns out that someone in the audience recently lost his wife named Mary. And then the "psychic" grabs the one who raised his hand, and begins to talk with him, naming plausible probable things. Suppose this is an elderly person, and the host says: “Mary was not young ... you feel the pain of loss ... you loved her very much ...” Using these probable guesses, he builds the illusion that he actually learned this from the spirits with whom he communicated.

- It seems to me that all astrological forecasts are written according to this principle. When it is written: “You suffered a lot” or “you are a very kind person, and everyone takes advantage of it,” this is considered true by the majority.

- Yes. There was even such a wonderful researcher Bertram Forer, who conducted such an experiment: he recruited an audience of students and invited them to pass psychological test. After some time, the participants in the experiment were given the results of these tests and were asked to rate how accurately the proposed personality characteristics described them. Most of them gave it a five, which is very accurate. Then Forer invited those present to exchange a questionnaire with his neighbor, and they saw that everyone was given the same text.

The Forer effect is used in astrology and other forms of divination, in socionics and beyond. I mentioned fortune-telling by fingerprints, there, too, a person is tested, receives as his questionnaire a huge number of these statements that apply to anyone. “You are often misunderstood… you act decisively, but sometimes you feel insecure…”, and so on. Be more critical of alternative knowledge, especially if they demand money for it.

Xenia Knorre Dmitrieva

• September 6, 2016

I really don't like it when my daughter is sick. She is an emotional person, her psyche is quite labile, minimal nasal congestion or a slight cough is accompanied by sleep disturbance, tantrums, whims, developing into scandals. She begins to demand excessive attention to herself, to freak out. After recovery, the echoes of the disease do not leave us for several more days.

After the second child appeared in our family, I began to fear diseases even more, because the youngest necessarily shared with my daughter all the infections that she brought from kindergarten. Two sick children on the same territory in a small apartment is already a nightmare! At night, you have to run from one bed to another, during the day you hear capricious crying every minute, while not being able to go out even for a while, not to mention the increasing spending on medicines.

Having faced such a situation more than once, I now try to prevent the possibility of SARS in my eldest daughter in advance and prevent the spread of infection if the disease has already entered our house. In these moments, I am ready to believe in the effectiveness of any drug.

In principle, I have always been engaged in the prevention of infectious diseases. Ever since the birth of my first child, when I visited the children's clinic, I instilled Derinat drops into her nose and myself, after visiting crowded places (shops, children's leisure cents), I washed my nose with Aqua Maris solution or the usual saline.

The first two years of her life, before starting kindergarten, the daughter was ill colds quite rarely, we then dealt more with the treatment of other problems acquired as a result of difficult childbirth.

But as soon as my daughter started attending the nursery preschool, then the whole family began to get sick with enviable regularity. During the first year of the kindergarten, I had a chance to treat the child not only with Viferon candles familiar from her birth, but also with other antiviral drugs, on which I had high hopes for a speedy recovery. Drops of "Grippferon" did not live up to expectations, and even caused a strong allergy, the manifestations of which on the skin had to be treated ointments "Elidel" and Bepanthen. Drops "Aflubin" I categorically did not like it because of its composition, but the effect of the reception seems to have been.

Syrup "Tsitovir", after a single acquaintance with him, did not inspire much confidence, although I can not say anything bad about him. Oxolinic ointment I was simply afraid to use it for a child, after I myself experienced its negative influence on myself.

The drugs used for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections in adults (Remantadin, Ergoferon, Interferon, Kagocel) should never be given to a child, and the list of allowed, but not yet tested drugs gradually narrowed.

One of these drugs, belonging to the group of homeopathic immunomodulating agents, was "Anaferon for children".

Children's Anaferon.

The drug is produced by Materia Medica, which has been on the pharmaceutical market for a long time and produces a wide range of homeopathic medicines, some of which I have already had the opportunity to repeatedly test on myself.

Children's Anaferon.

I cannot say that I am delighted with the products of this manufacturer, as, for example, with the preparations of the German company Heel, in my opinion many of them are based on the placebo effect, the compositions are sometimes very strange, but in general I can’t say anything bad.

Materia Medica is one of the TOP-10 Russian and foreign pharmaceutical companies in the Russian OTC market.

Founded in 1992, the private pharmaceutical manufacturing company manufactures and sells over 20 brands in the OTC market in Russia and the CIS.

Research in accordance with the requirements of GLP (Good Laboratory Practice - Good Laboratory Practice) and GCP (Good Clinical Practice - Good Clinical Practice) guarantee a high safety profile of drugs. In 2015-2016, Materia Medica conducted preclinical studies at 29 bases and clinical studies at 182 bases.

That is why I decided to buy two drugs from this manufacturer - "Anaferon for children" And "Agri for children" for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections, after all, homeopathy, and not chemically synthesized remedies (this is how I comforted myself). I didn’t want the child to get very sick, and I would again have to give him an antibiotic, as it happened once, then we treated bronchitis with Sumamed.

The purchase was connected with the next wave of OVRI in the winter period last year, when we had to travel for two days by train. Naturally, I was afraid that it would be cold, it might blow, the accumulation of a large number of people in a small unventilated room could not but be alarming. My mother, who was traveling with us, and I then accepted "Remantadin", what about children - "Anaferon for children", at that time they were 2.5 years and six months old.

Children's Anaferon.

Itself Materia Medica positions some of its products as innovative(having at the same time in the line and traditional, classical forms, which include just "Agri for children"). "Anaferon for children" belongs to the innovative group of funds.

What does this mean?

Innovative drugs of various pharmacological groups are based on affinity-purified antibodies to endogenous regulators using the technology of multiple sequential reduction in the concentration of the original substance.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

Of course, I'm not a homeopath, but a diploma of higher medical education I have. So, neither at lectures on pharmacology in 2005, nor at lectures on clinical pharmacology in 2008, we were told about such drugs, so the origin of these active substances remains a mystery to me, as well as the statement of the manufacturer himself in a very vague form. Well, okay, let's take our word for it, but innovations in our country are developing quickly. Foreign manufacturers are far from our domestic exclusive developments.

"Anaferon for children" Produced in the form of tablets, packed in a cardboard box with instructions for use. There are exactly 20 tablets in a blister under a foil membrane.

Children's Anaferon.

The cost of one package in January 2016 was 200 rubles I wouldn't be surprised if it's more expensive now.

Children's Anaferon.

COMPOSITION:

Active ingredients: antibodies to human gamma interferon affinity purified - 0.003 g * Excipients: lactose monohydrate 0.267 g, microcrystalline cellulose 0.03 g, magnesium stearate 0.003 g. * applied to lactose monohydrate in the form of a water-alcohol mixture with a content of not more than 10 -16 ng / g of the active form of the active substance.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

It's funny that the composition of children and adults "Anaferona" identical, only they differ in breeding, in children it is slightly larger.

Children's Anaferon.

Homeopathy is an interesting thing, of course, the main thing is to believe in it, this is a guarantee successful treatment, as in the case of dietary supplements, as well as with religion in some way in tune. Anyway.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

Although I recently found an article here that "Anaferon" generally does not belong to any group of drugs, including homeopathic ones, to which the company itself previously ranked it.

"Anaferon" and "Anaferon for children" do not officially belong to either group - these are drugs. This information can be read in the instructions for the drug, on the packaging and in official reference books. Messages appear on the Internet talking about the involvement of Anaferon in homeopathy, but these statements are erroneous and outdated. In the fall of 2009, having reviewed new data on the mechanism of action of drugs based on ultra-low doses of antibodies to endogenous regulators, the Pharmacological Committee of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation recognized that Anaferon and Anaferon for Children, created on the basis of ultra-low doses of antibodies to IFN-gamma, do not apply to the pharmacological group "homeopathic medicines".

This is justified by the fact that these drugs have proven specific pharmacological activity (direct regulatory effect on the interferon-gamma-interferon-gamma receptor system), and the so-called principle of similarity is not applied when prescribing them. At the same time, the Pharmacommittee still retained the ATC codes (J05AX, L03AX) and the pharmacological groups to which they were assigned during registration (antiviral, immunomodulatory) for Anaferon and Anaferon for Children.

Moreover, by order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 30, 2009 No. 2135-r, Anaferon for Children was included in the List of Vital and Essential Medicines.

Tablets of small size, round, flattened, with a risk for division, with inscriptions on one side announcing the name of the manufacturer Materia Medica, on the other hand, the name of the drug itself Anaferon Kid so that no one is confused.

Children's Anaferon, appearance tablets.

They taste a little sweet and bland, not to say that they are nasty, but they don’t cause much desire to “suck another pill”. When dissolved in a small amount of water, the taste is lost, but a slight precipitate may remain, so you need to write out the solution in one gulp, without thinking about the consequences, but how the most valuable affinity-purified antibodies will remain at the bottom and the tablet will not help. You can dissolve with a spoon, but this is inconvenient, because it takes some time, you get tired of keeping this spoon in a horizontal position, it’s easier in a small mug.

My child did not particularly resist the use of this solution, he drank just like some water.

INDICATIONS:

- prevention and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections (including influenza);

Complex therapy of infections caused by herpes viruses ( Infectious mononucleosis, chickenpox, labial herpes, genital herpes);

Complex therapy and prevention of recurrence of chronic herpes infection, including labial and genital herpes;

Complex therapy and prevention of other acute and chronic viral infections caused by the virus tick-borne encephalitis, enterovirus, rotavirus, coronavirus, calicivirus;

- in the composition complex therapy bacterial infections;

Complex therapy of secondary immunodeficiency states of various etiologies, including prevention and treatment of complications of viral and bacterial infections.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

Here, of course, it is interesting. Few drugs can boast such an assortment of indications. "Anaferon for children" can be used on almost everything! A wonderful tool! But, as practice shows, in reality this is not entirely true.

Children's Anaferon.

It is important to note that the manufacturer recommends using "Anaferon" as part of complex therapy, that is, other drugs should be used in the treatment, but which one of them worked is the second question. It is not reported which drugs should be used in this very complex therapy, homeopathic, dietary supplements or the most common human ones.

Children's Anaferon.

CONTRAINDICATIONS:

- children's age up to 1 month;

- increased individual sensitivity to the components of the drug.

About individual intolerance could write in more detail. To a greater extent, this applies to children with the so-called lactase deficiency who have intolerance to milk sugar - lactose, which is in the composition of the tablet.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

None of my children had contraindications to the use of the drug, so I began to give them with a calm soul "Anaferon for children" before the start of the trip and continued on the train and upon arrival, as she was afraid that the children might get sick due to climate change. They received the same dosage.

Fortunately, neither on the train nor immediately after did the children get sick, the packaging "Anaferona" ended successfully and I decided that as long as the child has enough immunity, we will start going to kindergarten, and then we'll see.

When registering my daughter for kindergarten in the clinic, after a couple of weeks, we had to long time stand in line. And that's how we hooked up rotavirus infection, which was safely brought home to our grandmother. Despite the fact that not so long ago we all took antiviral drugs used for prevention (adults "Remantadin", children "Anaferon") all fell ill, only the youngest son resisted the infection. Was the drug more effective for him than for his daughter? Maybe for his body weight, the dosage was just enough to provide antiviral protection, but it turned out not enough for his daughter? I can’t say, I just realized at that moment that a long-term protective antiviral effect "Anaferon for children" does not provide. Complete disappointment. After all, the instructions clearly state that the drug provides prevention of rotavirus infection.

I had to treat the child with Viferon candles tested over the years.

I then decided that "Anaferon for children" a completely useless drug, which is still not clear how it is produced. However, six months later, I bought the package again.

The summer vacation was coming to an end, it somehow suddenly became cold, the weather became rainy, windy, and such a sharp change in it contributed to the fact that my eldest child, whom you can’t drive home in the country, began to cough, sneeze, and in the evening became feverish. I had to urgently go to the city for treatment, and the only decent thing that was sold in the pharmacy on duty was again "Anaferon". As the pharmacist praised him, of course, I decided to purchase it again.

Of course one "Anaferon" We didn't get treatment. Let's go antipyretic candles "Cefekon", alternated with Nurofen syrup, cough drops "Stoptussin", our favorite spray in the throat "Tantum Verde", chamomile tea.

In general, such a classic treatment of SARS. To be honest, I didn't really count on "Anaferon" and the next day I already wanted to go to another pharmacy and buy “something decent”, but decided not to spend it yet, but to check how affinity-purified antibodies work in case of illness, and not as a prophylactic.

inside. For 1 reception - 1 tab. (keep in mouth until completely dissolved - not during meals).

Assign to children aged 1 month. When prescribing the drug to young children (from 1 month to 3 years), it is recommended to dissolve the tablet in a small amount (1 tablespoon) of boiled water at room temperature.

SARS, influenza, intestinal infections, herpes viral infections, neuroinfections. Treatment should be started as early as possible - when the first signs of an acute viral infection appear according to the following scheme: in the first 2 hours, the drug is taken every 30 minutes, then during the first day, 3 more doses are taken at regular intervals. From the second day onwards, take 1 tab. 3 times / day until complete recovery.

If there is no improvement, on the third day of treatment with the drug for acute respiratory viral infections and influenza, you should consult a doctor. In the epidemic season, for prophylactic purposes, the drug is taken daily 1 time / day for 1-3 months.

Hepital herpes. At acute manifestations genital herpes, the drug is taken at regular intervals according to the following scheme: 1-3 days - 1 tab. 8 times / day, then - 1 tab. 4 times / day for at least 3 weeks.

For the prevention of recurrence of chronic herpes infection - 1 tab. / day. The recommended duration of the prophylactic course is determined individually and can be up to 6 months.

When using the drug for treatment and prevention of immunodeficiency states, in the complex therapy of bacterial infections- take 1 tablet / day.

If necessary, the drug can be combined with other antiviral and symptomatic agents.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

But honestly, I didn’t understand if the antibodies worked or not. Against the background of the ongoing complex therapy, the child's temperature dropped, but they gave him an antipyretic, the cough did not become stronger, but an antitussive was used, the sore throat did not increase, because an anti-inflammatory spray was used. Experiment and use "Anaferon" as a monotherapy, there was no desire. After 5 days, the child recovered, but I continued to give my daughter white pills, because it was time to go to kindergarten, and there in the children's team a little immunity would never hurt. And after a couple of days, I decided to give it up, because you never know how immunomodulators will work and what damage they can do to health. A large number of registered autoimmune diseases Recently, doctors associate it with the widespread and thoughtless use of immunomodulators.

Generally about "Anaferone" there was no particular opinion, neither good nor bad. Some kind of drug. So, to calm the mother’s soul, of course, you can give it in the hope that the almighty affinity-purified antibodies will protect the child from impure forces (even better, from unclean hands). But as practice has shown, this protection is not enough for a long time, immunity without this doping works as usual, properly responding to the penetration of foreign infectious agents into the body. As remedy "Anaferon" also did not show itself as a super-effective drug. The child, as usual with SARS, recovered after 5 days, not at all earlier.

Children's Anaferon, instruction.

"Anaferon" turned out to be a very controversial drug for me, not homeopathy, but the dosages are calculated in dilutions (they used to write on the packaging, now this information is not in the instructions), the origin of the active substance is unknown, but the child did not get sick more than he could.

In general, I found here is such an interesting article on the website of Dr. Komarovsky(I don’t always share his opinion, but he at least has some kind of medical literacy), where the author smashes all homeopathy to smithereens, including tablets "Anaferon".

Are you a patient and the doctor has prescribed Anaferon for your treatment? Are you a doctor and a representative of the company producing and distributing Anaferon (“Materia Medica”) came to you? In any case, you are a sane person who does not want to be led by the nose. So you will probably be interested to know about Anaferon what you were not told:

Anaferon is "a mixture of homeopathic dilutions of C12, C30, C200 affinity-purified antibodies to human interferon gamma." How can antibodies to human interferon increase immunity, in particular, the production of this very interferon? If you are a doctor, then you will agree that this is unknown to medicine. Antibodies to human interferon (like any others) rearrange proteins in their chemical structure. What happens to proteins when they enter the gastrointestinal tract? If you are a doctor, then, no doubt, you know the answer to this question, but if you are a patient, then let me explain: they are digested there. How can this be consistent with their supposedly immunomodulatory and antiviral effects as part of Anaferon? Anaferon is a mixture of homeopathic dilutions of antibodies. Do you know what homeopathic dilution is? If not, then know: homeopathic dilution of C30 is a dilution of one part of the active substance in 100 ° (a number that is written as a unit and 60 zeros) parts of the solvent, dilution of C200 is a dilution of 1: 100 ° °, respectively. Can a person in their right mind imagine a therapeutic (or any) effect of such dilution? And the manufacturers of Anaferon, it seems, can ... To avoid misunderstandings, let's clarify that the homeopathic dilution of C200 will imply the presence of one molecule of the active ingredient in more than one single dose of the drug (i.e. this unfortunate molecule does not get into every tablet, maybe in one in ten, maybe less).

Thus, you see that the active ingredients of Anaferon are substances that cannot have any healing effect(in any case, the one that is declared) and at the same time are in dilutions that generally exclude any effect.

Children's Anaferon.

I can not disagree with many points, but I also cannot completely deny positive effect from some quality homeopathic remedies. Quality! Which are not produced in Russia, unfortunately!

Other drugs used to treat influenza and SARS.

CANDLES "VIFERON".

It is difficult to win victories in the unequal struggle against obscurantism, which is trying to penetrate not only society, but even science. It is all the more pleasant when defeats are diluted with good news. Recently, the organizers of the "Day of the Biologist" of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University listened to the opinion of former graduates, colleagues and caring readers social networks and canceled a presentation from Materia Medica Holding, which manufactures drugs considered homeopathic.

I will quote decent reaction organizing committee:

“We express our gratitude to you for your desire to make the event better and at the same time we apologize for our inattention: you can’t follow everything, therefore we especially value your constructive criticism. The lecture and booth of Materia Medica as part of the Biologist's Day program have been cancelled. We explain in order. The initial initiative of the company to speak at the faculty was really connected with the desire to highlight the topic of employment in the pharmaceutical industry, which was especially encouraged by the faculty administration and therefore was skipped by the organizing committee. But your comments awakened the spirit of justice in the team, we checked the information and came to a collective decision, which was also supported by the administration, that a company with such a reputation at the Faculty of Biology is unacceptable. We are against homeopathy and for the collective desire to make the world a better place. Thank you again, your Organizing Committee."

The news got into some media, so the benefits were twofold.

In this article I will talk a little about the problems of science and what this company with a bad reputation is doing.

The Materia Medica company has patented and registered many homeopathic remedies, for example, Anaferon - for viral infections, Artroferon - for joint diseases, Anfala - for inflammation, Impaza - for impotence. At some point, the company decided to hide the homeopathic nature of its products. On the packages they write “active ingredients - 0.003g”, and then a footnote: “applied to lactose monohydrate in the form of a water-alcohol mixture with a content of not more than 10 to the power of -15 ng / g of the active form of the active substance.” Eventually active substance is diluted 10 to the power of -26 times. The drug contains nothing, but the patient does not know about it.

The same approach is used to publish articles about the drug in international peer-reviewed scientific journals - the homeopathic nature of the investigational remedy is hidden. Judging by the number of articles on the topic and the errors that can be found in them, the concealment of information, combined with a very vague description of the experiments, makes it possible to lull the vigilance of reviewers.

Consider an example - an article published in the journal PloS ONE. In response to viral infections human body produces special proteins - interferons, including interferon-gamma. The "active substance" of the study drug is antibodies to interferon-gamma, that is, molecules that bind this protein, but homeopathically diluted. The authors refer to these as release-active forms of antibodies, or "RA forms" for short. The terms used create the illusion of a "scientific" approach.

The article argues that the addition of RA forms to conventional antibodies, taken at a measurable concentration, affects the ability of the latter to bind to interferon. The effect is shown using enzyme immunoassay - chemical reactions occur on a special microplate with a large number of wells. In some wells, antibodies are added to interferon along with RA forms, and in others, antibodies with a control solution.

The problem is that the measurement noise of the instrument used is not uniformly distributed over the microplate, resulting in a "position effect" where some wells may react slightly faster than others. For example, due to temperature gradients. This fact has been known to enzyme immunoassay specialists since at least 1979. There are several ways to get rid of the error. One method is called "spatial randomization": experimental and control samples are applied to randomly selected wells and errors are averaged. Another way: experimental and control samples are applied to the wells in alternating lines.

If all experimental samples are placed on one side, and control samples on the other, as the authors of the work under discussion did, then the difference in measurements will be explained not by the magical effect of homeopathically diluted antibodies, but by the “position effect”. But the authors do not use randomization or blinding methods and receive a deliberately erroneous conclusion, which is used for marketing purposes.

A colleague and I wrote a more detailed analysis of this article and submitted it to PloS ONE magazine. The editors promised to sort it out, but disappeared. Therefore, we posted our review as a comment to the article on English language. Another editor of PLoS ONE, Professor James Coyne, supported us and wrote on his blog, but this did not make the magazine react in any way. And this is a good thing in the whole magazine. In many places, things are much worse.

We found problems related to the violation of the scientific method in other works on "hidden homeopathy". One of our reviews was published in the journal Medical Virology. All this is one of many illustrations of the complexity of the scientific approach, which will be included in a future book on the reasons for believing in the paranormal.

Director of Materia Medica, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Oleg Epshtein has recently become a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2016, he became a member of the Dissertation Council D.001.003.01 of the Research Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology.

The history of the growth in the number of scientific publications of Epstein is also curious. For example, in 2003 he became the author of 49 scientific articles in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine in a special issue of which he himself was the editor. Soon he defended his doctorate. Before that, I could only find one article by Epstein in the PubMed medical database.

The company itself is prospering and brings in billions of dollars in income from sugar (tens of thousands of rubles per kilogram). But the saddest conclusion is that the level of peer review in many scientific journals, which is considered to be "decent", does not hold water. What can we say about the "sciences", where everything is built on " personal experience". So maybe we should not be surprised at the existence of strange scientific advice. After all, in homeopathy, “scientific work” is actively being carried out with all possible violations.

In 2005, Professor John Ioannidis published a landmark article in the journal PloS Medicine, which is recommended reading for anyone interested in and engaged in science. The paper is titled: Why Most Published Scientific Results Are Wrong. According to the journal Nature, most scientists claim that they could not reproduce some of the experiments of their colleagues. The preference to talk about positive results, the need to write more papers, small samples and errors in statistical analysis are the problems of science that are now being talked about more and more.

There is a crisis in science. I have described one example. The second one, which was successfully defended today. Another set of problems is revealed by the Dissernet project, which showed the corruption of entire scientific councils and even rectors of universities. There is no doubt that under the tip of the iceberg of frank parascientific nonsense, there is a much larger, but less noticeable "underwater part".

So, homeopathy, hidden homeopathy, theology. Looking forward to astrology. And then the last prophecy of my dystopia - apothenia - will come true, when the state will replace scientists with shamans. Legalization of sorcerers, and for appeals destroy scientists are not punished.

But it is better, and here I appeal to all respected colleagues, to start doing something. At least to speak out, and not to endure when science is trampled on. So far, all the normal specialists have not been fired. Like the homeopaths of Denis Roshchin, who dared to speak out against the pseudoscience of superstrong dilutions.

Literature:

1. Epshtein O: Method of treating viral diseases https://google.com/patents/US8815245 2011.
2. Gavrilova ES et al: Novel approach to activity evaluation for release-active forms of anti-interferon-gamma antibodies based on enzyme-linked immunoassay. PLoS One 2014, 9(5):e97017.
3. Burt SM et al: Thermal characteristics of microtitre plates used in immunological assays. J Immunol Methods 1979, 31(3-4):231-6.
4. Roselle C et al: Mitigation of microtiter plate positioning effects using a block randomization scheme. Anal Bioanal Chem 2016, 408(15):3969-79.
5. Harrison RO, Hammock BD: Location dependent biases in automatic 96-well microplate readers. J Assoc Off Anal Chem 1988, 71(5):981-7.
6. Dueva EV, Panchin AY: Homeopathy in disguise. Comment on Don et al.: Dose-dependent antiviral activity of released-active form of antibodies to interferon-gamma against influenza A/California/07/09(H1N1) in murine model. J Med Virol 2017, 89(7):1125-6.
7. Ioannidis JP: Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Med 2005, 2(8):e124.
8. Baker M: 1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility. Nature 2016.