GOVT DISPELS CLAIMS OF EXPIRED DRUGS

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 12:49:05 +0000

By Chikumbi Katebe

GOVERNMENT is providing free test kits for the compulsory test and treat programme on the fight against HIV.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said both public and private health institutions are mandated to offer routine HIV tests to all their patients, but that it was no guarantee that the tests will be free.

He said HIV testing was routine, but that there were certain commodities which the Government could not provide free, and which the private clinics had to stock up on their own and so charge for the tests.

“There are certain commodities which we provide to the private sector for free but there are others which we do not.

“So for certain laboratory reagents, the private sector do buy on their own and they charge but it is routine for them to offer the HIV test,” he said.

He was speaking during the tour of Medical Stores Limited warehouses recently to ascertain drug quality and quantities against rumours of shortages and expired medicines dispensed in public facilities.

Dr Chilufya was acting on rumors that Medical Stores Limited has up to seven months drugs stocks with the earliest expiry date being May 2018 on some antibiotics scheduled for early distributing with the first-in-first-out rule of storage.

Warehouse Manager Enerst Sinyinda told the minister that the country had up to seven months stocks of drugs housed at the two Medical Stores facilities of which none of the drugs had less than six months shelf life.

Mr Sinyinda explained that the company had devised a security system that provided for up to 95 percent protection against expiry at the premises with reduced pilferage and damage among other features recently developed.

“With assistance from the Global Fund and the European Union (EU), we have managed to undertake an expansion of holding capacity at MLS with investment in a fleet of trucks towards the decentralised medical hubs across the country to increase storage outside Lusaka.

“We have seen the installation of a dock lever mechanised system to reduce manpower during packing which has eliminated damage to boxes or its contents following the modernization of Medical Stores,” Mr Sinyinda said.

And manager at MLS Ann Zulu explained that the company’s stocks of Antiretroviral (ARVs) which was currently being given to patients had 2019 expiry date on its shelf life.

And Chinika warehouse manager Enock Mwale has disclosed that the company had up to 72, 000 bottles of chlorine procured for free distribution in the intervention against the spread of cholera in Lusaka and affected areas.