Medicines
Green Pages
To remind someone who cannot read
how often to take their medicine, you
can draw them a picture like this:
In the blanks at the bottom, draw the amount of medicine to take
and carefully explain what it means. For example:
This means they should take
1 tablet 4 times a day: 1 at
sunrise, 1 at midday, 1 in the
late afternoon, and 1 at night.
This means 1/2 tablet
4 times a day.
This means 2 spoons of syrup
2 times a day.
Kinds of medicine
There are several different kinds of medicine listed in this book — antibiotics, pain
medicines, medicines to stop allergic reactions or bleeding, and medicines to treat
pre-eclampsia. We describe many individual medicines on the following pages.
One group of medicines, antibiotics, needs explanation as a group.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are used to fight infections caused by germs.
Antibiotics that are similar to each other are said to come
from the same family.
Antibiotics from the same family can usually treat the
same problems. If you cannot get one antibiotic, another
one from the same family may work instead.
A person who is allergic to one antibiotic is often
also allergic to the other antibiotics in the same family.
She should not take any antibiotic from that family.
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A Book for Midwives (2010)