Sprint 1

This week, Adwin and Ben created the database we needed for the project. As they need to know some information regarding the medical side, I decided to interview one of my friends in nursing and another friend who is studying pharmaceutical science.

I asked my nursing friend how medical personnel categorise allergies and how vaccines work. She told me that allergies are classified under:

• Food Allergy

• Drug Allergy

• Dust Allergy

• Insect Allergy

• Pet Allergy

• Latex Allergy

• Mold Allergy

• Latex Allergy

• Cockroach Allergy

• Sinus Infection

• Skin Allergy

• Eye Allergy

• Allergy Rhinitis

Whereas vaccines target one kind of flu. Seasonal Influenza Vaccines are available every year. These seasonal influenza vaccines are created to go against the 3 to 4 influenza viruses that are most likely to spread during the upcoming flu season. The influenza flu period starts increasing during October and peaks between December and February, lasting till as late as May.

For my pharmaceutical science friend, I asked her how the drugs are being classified and she explained to me that drugs are first categorised by which system in the body they work on.

They are then sub categorized into the main medical conditions they treat.

Some drugs may fall into more than one sub heading. When this happens, they will be put under the main condition that they are used to treat.

One example can be the drug Ketoprofen (a kind of painkiller). Its sub categorized as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Under the indication for what they are used for, they are also used to relieve pain especially for osteoarthritis.

They are then further sub categorized into the Pharmacological class of drugs. Some drugs may be of different structures, but they work almost the same

For example, Depression. It has this Pharmacological class of drugs called Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. These drugs include:

• Fluoxetine

• Fluvoxamine

• Paroxetine

• Sertraline

• Citalopram

• Escitalopram