Overseas Pharmacy... Safe? Every year, millions of people visit developing countries. The problem facing business people and travellers is that often they have not been exposed to a wide range of infections. This means they should have an overseas pharmacy in mind before they travel to their destination.  Vaccination is not the only precaution that should be taken when travelling in a developed country. Many diseases are transmitted through food which has been handled by a carrier of the disease. This means that uncooked vegetables, salads, raw meat, shellfish, and drinks made with water or ice are all potential health hazards, and should be approached with caution. The sensible solution is to make sure you receive the recommended vaccinations for any overseas country you visit. It is important, however, to realize that for many vaccines to be totally effective, a series of doses over an extended period of time are required. For example, hepatitis B vaccines usually require a couple of months before they reach their full effectiveness.       Public Safety of Drugs FDA continually assesses the safety of the products it regulates and responds to safety reports by taking actions such as, providing important product safety information to the public, making changes in labeling, requiring a product design change, or withdrawing a product from the market. FDA promptly issues Safety Alerts, Public Health Advisories, Recalls, Talk Papers, and Notices in an effort to inform the public about patient safety issues as they are identified.    In May 1999, FDA released a public document entitled, "Managing the Risks from Medical Product Use: Creating a Risk Management Framework." This document is significant because it framed FDA's role in medical product risk management and included many recommendations that were incorporated into the QuIC response to the IOM report. Most importantly, it antedated the release of the IOM report on medical errors and demonstrated that FDA was proactive in thinking about the issue of patient injury due to medical products.