Santiago Travel Forum

We are traveling to Santiago and will arrive on February 14th. The length of time we can stay will depend on if our daughter can get her prescription medicine refilled there. Her doctor in Canada will only give her a prescription for a limited amount so if it is not available we will be limited in our stay. She has thyroid problems and has to take desiccated thyroid (natural not synthetic) Some brand names are Armour, Naturethoid, Westhroid and Qualitest. She will have a prescription with her but the stuff is not too common. Could somebody please call a pharmacy/botique and see if they have it. We would really appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Robert, Susan & Karen

Is it not possible to ask your doctor for enough to take on your trip or does the medication have a short shelf life?

The problem is that her doctor will not prescribe but a month at a time even through she will be gone more than a month. Robert

I think your doctor is being unreasonable unless there is a medical reason not to give you the medication.

We agree. He is being very unreasonable but that still does not help us in knowing if the ,edicine is available in Santiage.

this is the official site of the chilean doctors association, they should know how to guide you, they have fax and email listed.
http://www.fepafem.org.ve/datos_asociacion.php?Id_Asociacion=7

hope it helps

I am not a doctor or medical professional. I only post info that may aid you in the search for an adequate answer to your question.

FYI, links to the main consumer pharmacies in Chile:

http://www.cruzverde.cl
http://www.salcobrand.cl
http://www.ahumada.cl

There is an online medical database and from the results, it "appears" that no lab in Chile makes or markets such a product with this active ingredient:

http://www.prvademecum.com/salcobrand/PRData/NEWPrincipioActivo.asp?D=3875

(I ASSUME that the active ingredient in Spanish is "Tiroides desecada" and only a doctor can confirm this for sure.)

Chile culture caveats:

Be aware that email and electronic communications may result in no replies or satisfactory answers if they do reply.

Be aware that phone calls may yield variable answers as the person at the other end may not know the correct answer and may be answering with a good sounding response so they don't look or sound dumb.

I would think that even if they do carry the medicine you are looking for, you would need to visit a Chilean licensed doctor for a in-Chile prescription though you may be able to convince the pharmacist to sell it to you without one.

Good luck.

The one thing that would concern me about buying drugs in South America is the fact that most of the World’s fake drugs are made there, not sure if Chile is one of them though.
No actual drugs are in this fake medication but a load of nasty stuff to make it look like the genuine stuff.

In Chile, if you buy your meds from a legitimate pharmacy there should not be any issue. Argentina's pharma industry though has a beter rep for quality and price.

Dryed thyroid is not to be made fake, because it is of no interest for most doctors to prescribe itand for that no field to lucrate with it. So, as it must be prepared at a laboratory, if you get it, it will be true dryed thyroid.

Just to set the record straight no reliable doctor in Chile would recommend the use of desiccated thyroid natural or not.

toid, interesting. Please tell me the reasons, since I am medicated the synthetic.

No one will sell you fake drugs in a legitimate pharmacy in Chile (please give serious advice, people), but eeuunikkeiexpat is right: if a prescription is required, you will probably need one from a Chilean doctor.

On the other hand, I'm not sure, but I think thyroid extract is considered as a "traditional" medication (medicina natural or alternativa for us. "Tradicional" would mean the exact opposite for us in this case, the regular, most common one). Maybe that's why toid says a doctor wouldn't recommend it, I don't know about that.
But you may not find it at the regular pharmacies (mentioned by eeuuni...). So you may try a "farmacia de medicina natural", such as:
http://www.farmaciasknop.cl/
http://www.knop.cl/

Good luck.

The synthetic is supposed to have on;y 2 of the 4 parts (T1, T2, T3, and T4.
Our daughter seems to do better on the original stuff.