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It's a hypochondriac's dream - thousands of common and obscure medical conditions, all listed in alphabetical order.

Feeling a little peaky this new year? There's bound to be a good, unhealthy reason... and a two-second diagnosis to suit you. From Aids, abdominal cramping and abscesses, stretch your mind and you'll reach zinc deficiencies and zygote intrafallopian transfers within minutes. Want to skip the GP's queue? Just find a computer, go online and you'll be a medical expert, of sorts, in a flash.

There are qualifications to be earned and drugs to be bought, all at the click of a mouse. The internet is a long-established medical tool, used by desperate cancer patients to track new drugs and by heartless fraudsters to offload untested concoctions. It is an invaluable resource and an incalculable menace, and its reach in Ireland is growing daily.

American and UK sites for medical information have been around for years but more and more home-grown sites are being posted on the web for Ireland's 340,000 internet users.

One of Ireland's best-established magazine discussion sites is www.irishhealth.com, which offers question and answer sessions with doctors, monitors waiting lists and debates the issues of the day - this month the hot topics are 'ghost' health boards and New Year's resolutions.

But it is now being joined by new sources of accredited information, such as www.healthhub.ie. Ireland's first health portal catering for health professional bodies, health professionals and the public, and is intended as a one-stop shop for medical sources and information.

Its members include the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists, the Irish Council of Psychotherapy, the College of Continuing Pharmaceutical Education, the Irish Association of Social Workers, the Irish Patients' Association, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the Medical Council, the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union.

Services for the public include a search for health professionals, a regular newsletter, a medical dictionary, career opportunities and details of support groups, starting with abuse and addiction.

A services directory includes details of ambulance services, blood donation, clinics and hospitals. The hospitals on the directory are divided by speciality, such as children, cancer, psychiatric etc. Other useful websites include private health insurer www.vhi.ie, which boasts a massive A-to-Z database of conditions, as well as health news and advice on exercise and diet and quitting smoking.

Another relative newcomer is www.mygp.ie, set up by the Irish Medical Organisation, which lists embarrassing problems such as body odour and cellulite alongside crisis telephone numbers, first aid techniques and a medical dictionary.

Stephen McMahon is spokesman for the Irish Patients' Association, which has recently joined

healthhub.ie and set up its own website, www.irishpatients.ie.

He says: "Irish websites offer a great start for patients looking for information. These websites are the future of medical information. To give you an idea of the numbers we are talking about, 340,000 Irish people use the internet and that figure is growing. It will be used more and more. Some patients, because of the research they do, could have qualified as doctors 25 years ago - maybe not surgeons, but many of us could be any other kind of medic.

"Our own website has proved very successful - even though we haven't advertised it in any great way it gets a fair bit of hits every month. Particularly if people want to complain, there are guidelines on how to do it. And the source is reliable. If we were to say something off the rails, we would be corrected. We are accountable."

But the big issue for the Irish Patients' Association (IPA) is not dubious advice, but the far more life-threatening internet pharmacies, from which customers can buy drugs online without reference to a doctor.

Mr McMahon says his group met the junior health minister Tim O'Malley before Christmas, and hopes to meet junior health minister Brian Lenihan soon to discuss co-ordinating efforts to stop drugs being made available online, or at least to limit the amount of sales.

"My understanding is that it is illegal to sell drugs, but legal to buy them. With the drugs coming from China or who knows where, how do you know if any are coming out with the wrong formula or are unsafe?"

The IPA has published advice on its website, under the headline: 'You can die from one click of your mouse!' It cites a frightening estimate by the World Health Organisation that 10% of all the drugs on sale globally are counterfeit.

"By buying these drugs you are not only depriving yourself and future patients of the necessary cash to invest in the development of new drugs but you may be putting your life at risk," the IPA warns.

Internationally controlled substances such as hydrocodone, diazepam, and alprazolam made up 90% of orders from internet pharmacies recently seized in the USA. These drugs are responsible for increasing numbers of admissions to A&E due to drug abuse.

"At this time, many if not most internet users in Ireland have received unsolicited invitations to buy prescription drugs over the net," continues the IPA. Many of these drugs can have serious side-effects if not taken appropriately.

"The Irish Patients' Association shares the view that people who are more informed about their health-care decisions are subsequently more likely to understand their medicines. So if your drugs-online hazard merchants are flogging them, are they giving you the necessary information that you need? Is the product safe? And if something goes wrong, have you any comeback?"

The IPA believes the Government should:

* Outline the hazards of buying drugs over the internet without consultation, their side-effects, risks from counterfeit medicines, and drug interactions.

* Draw public attention to the legal and regulatory framework relating to prescription drugs.

* Encourage the public to report dubious online pharmacies to the Irish Medicines Board on Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2.

It says internet service providers should filter out drug-related spam, remove illegal sites from their services and advise regulators of the numbers and value of online drug purchases.

Patients should:

* Only buy their medicines from high street chemists or online from Irish-based pharmacies regulated by the IMB.

* Make sure they have all the information about the medicine they buy, such as when to take it, what to avoid, possible side-effects etc.

In recent research, 96% of GPs said they believed the health landscape in Ireland was changing fast, with patients far more informed than they were five years ago. But they said easy access to reliable information on medicines was still lacking.

The internet is a tool which can help, but the message is clear: treat it with caution, or pay the price.

Source: Irish Independent