This is unbelievable...Am I missing something or is this pharmacist out of
her mind telling people expired drugs are ok to use and will continue
dispensing THE EXPIRED DRUGS.  I'm sure they taught her in school the
purpose of the expiration date?


From the Daily Observer  11/9/99

Clinic gives patients expired drugs
Chief pharmacist says drugs safe

The Serrekunda Health Centre and other clinics across the country have been
dispensing expired drugs to patients suffering from diarrhoea since January
4, 1999, investigations by Daily Observer revealed yesterday.

The drug, oral rehydration salts, were manufactured on January 4, 1996 and
declared expired on January 4, 1999. The salts were manufactured for the
World Health Organisation (WHO).  One patient who was given the expired drug
by nurses at Serrekunda clinic was Jali Madi
Kanuteh of Latrikunda Yiranganya. "After drinking the drug, I realised that
it was expired.  I showed it to other people who were at my compound playing
checkers," he said.

Mr Kanuteh argued that since the labelled expiry date for the drug had
expired, health workers should not dispense them to patients. A Ghanaian
teacher expressed concern over the issue.  "If you don't  publish it, it
could cause more harm than good,"  he told our reporter. This reporter
visited the Serrekunda clinic last weekend and saw nurses dispensing large
quantities of the expired drug to patients.

Dr Mariama Tala Jallow, chief pharmacist at the Central Medical Store,
yesterday confirmed to the Daily Observer  that the oral rehydration salts
were indeed expired but pointed out, "It is still safe to use. We will not
dispense drugs to any patient if it is not safe to use because our main
responsibility is to treat patients and not to give them more problems. And
for diarrhoea, the ordinary ORS doesn't have any side effects. Even if it
has expired, the drug is safe to use."

Dr Jallow further point out that "we only dispense expired drugs from our
health facility if our new stock hasn't arrived yet. Like in this case, the
ORS which we have ordered hasn't arrived. We have been receiving a lot of
drugs but we are still waiting for the ORS. So, in
the meantime, we have assessed this ORS and we know that it is still safe to
use and we should still continue using them.".


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