At my job they tell us expired drugs belong to the sewer, i mean we flush them down the toilet and my message to Dr Jallow is to stop giving her patients expired drugs. Alasana Bah >From: astrid christensen-tasong <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Article from the Observer: Expired Drugs >Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 06:57:14 PST > >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.". > > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------