Increasing sale of expired medicines worries Khost residents

KHOST CITY (Pajhwok): Most pharmacies in this capital city of southeastern Khost province sell low quality and expired medicines to people, a number of residents say.

They ask the government to prevent the selling of low quality and expired medicines which cause harm to people instead of benefit.

The residents add if the current situation continues, they will be left with no option but to take their patients to other provinces and abroad for treatment.

Saidullah, a resident of Khost City, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the sale of low-quality and outdated medicines in most of pharmacies in Khost City had worried people and the government should take action to stop the practice. He said patients did not recover and could die if given the expired medicines.

Another resident, Asmatullah, told Pajhwok that poor quality and outdated medicine had no benefit but caused economic loss to people.

“The doctor gave me some pills that worsened my condition and created me a stomach ailment because the pills were of low quality.”

Some other residents held similar views and asked the government to prevent the buying and selling of bad quality and outdated medicines.

A doctor, Abdul Hakim Zadran, told Pajhwok that it had become difficult to find quality medicines in the city since past eight months and the reason was the import of low quality medicines to the country by an organization called ‘DA’.

“Most of the low quality and expired drugs are smuggled into the country. Even if quality drugs are imported, they will remain at the customs for four to eight months and their quality is lost. There is only one machine all in Afghanistan to analyze the quality of medicine. It cannot check the medicine for 40 million people.”

Calls to seek the view of the Public Health Department of Khost in this regard went unanswered.

However, Khost Information and Culture Director Shabir Ahmad Osmani told Pajhwok that delegations had been appointed at different times to monitor pharmacies in the city and districts in order to prevent the sale of low-quality and outdated medicines.

“The inspection of our delegations will continue. The sale of low-quality drugs should be and will be prevented. The Ministry of Public Health has signed contracts with companies that have good quality medicines.”

Most pharmacies in Khost do not have a legal license or professional staff.

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