Some people prefer to treat minor illnesses themselves with medicines bought from a pharmacy or advice found online, rather than visiting a doctor. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Admittedly, self-care has real advantages. The most obvious is convenience, since a working parent with a cold can buy a remedy in five minutes rather than losing half a day in a waiting room. In Casablanca,

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, public clinics are so crowded that a visit for a minor complaint can mean hours on a bench surrounded by people who are far sicker. Closely linked to

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is the benefit to the health system itself. When citizens manage small problems at home, doctors have more time for patients who truly need them, and,

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, waiting lists for serious conditions grow shorter.

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, the dangers of

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habit are considerable. The most serious is misdiagnosis, because many grave illnesses begin with symptoms that look harmless. A persistent headache may be stress, or it may be high blood pressure, and only an examination can tell the difference, so a person who treats the pain and ignores the cause may lose months of valuable treatment.

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, medicines taken without guidance can do harm of their own. Antibiotics bought over the counter,

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, are often taken for viral infections they cannot cure, and

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misuse has made several common infections in Morocco resistant to drugs that once worked reliably.