[Physicians faced with reporting in campaign against doping]

Despite its geographic isolation Iceland has not escaped the advent of problems with illicit drug-taking and abuse of hormones and other agents, in athletics and in other contexts. Denial of abuse, both by individuals and by athletics clubs, is facilitated by the secrecy surrounding usage and a certain insouciance among physicians with regard to the occurrence of abuse and the health risks involved, paired with a tendency to put confidentiality before the obligation to report incipient signs of health hazards and epidemiological trends. Good relations with the mass media, open factual discussions, and the civil courage to sound the alarm as early as possible, will be needed if such health risks to the community are to be discovered and counteracted.