BBC: Viagra chic on Italy's streets
Thursday, October 22, 1998 Published at 15:04 GMT 16:04 UK
Viagra: The popular cure for flagging Romeos
As the anti-impotence drug Viagra goes on sale in
many European countries this month, Europe
Correspondent David Shukman considers the hype
and the risks.
Viagra is suddenly becoming fashionable: on one of the
seven hills outside Rome there stands a modern building
which until recently would have been ignored by all
except those who work there. A standard product of
nineties architecture, its mirrored windows reflect the
autumn sunlight over the surrounding suburbs. The name
emblazoned over the building's entrance is Pfizer; which
could hardly be less Italian. But the latest product of this
American pharmaceutical company has taken Italy by
storm.
The drug, the now-famous little blue pill called Viagra, is
described as the most effective cure for impotence ever
invented. Rarely has the hype been so intense, and
potentially so damaging.
Deep divide
As in the rest of Europe, the arrival of Viagra in Italy has
sharply divided opinion. The medical authorities have
been faced with highly awkward choices. On the one
hand there is now a drug to cure a serious and often
ignored problem; on the other, in an age in which sex
seems to play an ever greater role on television, in
advertising, in newspapers, the drug is bound to be seen
as some sort of aphrodisiac, and taken by those who do
not really need it, but simply want to try it.
And as it happens, Viagra hit the streets in Italy, long
before the authorities were ready to legalise it. The
source was the tiny republic of San Marino. By a quirk of
history, San Marino is an independent country, tucked
away in the Apennine hills in the centre of Italy. And
exercising its independence, San Marino legalised
Viagra early last summer. Within days, the only
approach to the republic, a highway that twists up
through the mountains, was clogged with traffic. Cars
arrived from all over Italy. San Marino's doctors had never
been busier, or richer. And Viagra soon spread far
beyond San Marino's little borders. A black market has
since opened up. Viagra, on sale in night-clubs, is now a
fashion accessory, and the publicity is out of control.
Consumer craze
A restaurant in Naples offers "pizza di amore", a pizza
with Viagra sprinkled on top along with the cheese and
olives.
One consultant has told the newspapers that Viagra will
lead to a new sexual revolution. It will be as significant
for men as the contraceptive Pill has been for women, he
declares.
One of Rome's brightest young film directors is rewriting
his next screenplay to include Viagra.
And then there is the ice-cream parlour that has
dreamed up a new flavour, "Viagra Symphony". It is the
same pale blue colour as Viagra, but it does not contain
the drug itself. Just for the record, I tried the ice-cream
and can report that I was left only with a rather bitter
after-taste.
And that is what many medical experts are dreading
about Viagra, that the drug will somehow backfire and
prove dangerous. In one of Rome's top private hospitals,
a series of seminars is under way to advise local doctors
and pharmacists about the risks. The hospital's top
specialist in this field, Professor Joseph Tritto, has
particular concerns about Viagra being mixed with other
drugs. A calm, cautious figure, Professor Tritto is the
exact opposite of the stereotypical view of the excitable
Italian. He detests the hype about Viagra and is very
worried about the black market that has built up around
it. But his greatest fear is that prescriptions for the drug
will be too easy to obtain, that unscrupulous or lazy GPs
might not bother to check patients' health records.
The manufacturers themselves warn that anyone with
any sort of heart trouble should keep well away from
Viagra. Professor Tritto believes that all too often that
warning will not be heeded, and that unless prescriptions
are properly controlled, the consequences could be fatal.
In effect that those who live by hype, might end up dying
by it.
Viagra value
All of which distracts attention from what many see as
the real value of Viagra. In the office of one consultant, I
heard a patient describe how the drug had transformed
his life. The man, who did not want to give his name,
said it was not easy admitting impotence. This is
especially true in a land where every adult male is
assumed to be a Romeo or Casanova. The patient, 58
years old, said he had been impotent for five years. His
marriage had collapsed. But now Viagra had given him
new courage, and he had found a new girlfriend. A shy,
quiet man, he was evidently brimming with new found
happiness. He showed me little notes from his new
partner. Look, he said pointing at one, tucked into his
mobile phone, she has written, "Bombard me with phone
calls". There were tears in his eyes. Viagra obviously
had changed his life, and all the publicity and
speculation and jokes were simply irrelevant.
As elsewhere in Europe, doctors face deciding between
deserving cases such as his, and the rest. Hospitals say
they are being flooded with calls about the drug and a
good many sound genuine. One estimate is that as
many as 40% of men in middle age or older suffer some
form of impotence. After long years in which this was a
hidden problem, a solution is now available. Yet the
hype, with all its risks, continues. And the latest word on
this: a dress paraded on the fashion catwalk was
coloured a very particular shade of light blue.
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