fake drugs being burnt in Kenema
By Mohamed Vandi in Kenema and Septimus Senessie in Kono
The drug regulatory body, Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone over the weekend confiscated and set on fire piles of substandard drugs worth over Le400 million at the government hospitals in Kenema and in Kono.
Deputy Minister of health and sanitation, Abubakarr Fofana, who witnessed the destruction exercises, confirmed the quantity and value of the drugs. He said the venture was in line with government’s effort to ensure proper health service delivery in the country.
He said they had gone to Makeni, Kono, Bo and Kenema to perform the same function.
The expressed the belief in getting firsthand information from affected people, adding that the tour of the regions had given him an insight about happenings in the health sector.
He lauded the Pharmacy Board and assured of government’s commitment to supporting their actions of ensuring appropriate health service delivery.
John Akar Sesay of the safety and regulation office in Kenema said the expired and substandard drugs were confiscated by a taskforce in medicine outlets and trade fares especially in rural communities.
Asked whether the huge consignment of counterfeit drugs was indicative of the insufficient effort of the organisation, Sesay said it was very difficult given the porous nature of the country’s borders. “Most of the counterfeit drugs are smuggled in from Guniea and Liberia through porous entry points along the long stretch of our borders,” he complained.
In Kono the deputy minister spoke about the dangers attached to counterfeit, substandard and expired drugs. He described such drugs as “a poison”, which if not controlled, would lead to the death of poor Sierra Leoneans are unaware of their danger.
He said the intention to curb and weed out quack doctors from the community was not a witch hunt but a move to bring about sanity in the health sector. He added that similar activities would be undertaken in all the districts in Sierra Leone, and encouraged medical practitioners to save more lives than to end them.
