Cameroon: Scare of Expired Drugs

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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)

28 August 2008
Posted to the web 28 August 2008

Nkendem Forbinake

A recent virtually unnoticeable incident in Douala has come to remind us of the complexity and deep-rooted nature of the problem of handling drugs in the country.

It is reported that a citizen went over to a pharmacy in Douala to purchase some drugs prescribed by his attending physician. Back home, and upon opening up the packaging and reading accompanying instructions, he discovered, to his utter dismay, that the drugs had long gone beyond their expiry date. He rushed back to the pharmacy to complain. Luckily, the pharmacy attendants showed rare comprehension. They apologized and apologized.

This is a rare episode. But it comes to remind us that in the fight to ensure that the greatest safety standards are observed in the distribution of medicines destined for human consumption, no one should be considered so sure.

All this while the search lights of public attention have always been focused on road-side drug sellers. They have been given all unarguable proverbial bad names. But no one has ever succeeded in hanging them. On the contrary, one has the impression they are thriving, if the number of new open-air spots opening up in our cities for drug sales are any indication to count on. Because of the Douala incident, many are those, especially stakeholders in the drug distribution sector, who say it will be foolhardy and even too easy to quickly identify who is doing foul play.

Drug professionals, especially owners of duly registered pharmacies have been quick to accuse road-side drug sellers and itinerant drug peddlers as those solely responsible for the disorder. They question the origin of the drugs sold and they way same are handled. Some of the sellers have come out rather straight, challenging this claim with a counter claim. They accuse health administrators and pharmacists for using them as easy agents for the sale of drugs and other medicines which come in the form of donations from foreign bodies. Some of the sellers contacted yesterday, as we prepared this piece, were even very pointed. "How do you explain the fact that drugs like "Coartem", widely used in combating malaria or the handy pain killer "Eferalgan", go virtually for less than half their pharmacy price at road-side sales points "we were asked.

This charge cannot be wholly unfounded. Cases of other forms of complicity have also been reported; such as the claim that some of these road-side sellers also supply some of the formal and recognized pharmacies with drugs.

This ping-pong game of sorts between the good and the bad sellers leaves us with no other option than to recognize the presence of an enemy in the drug distribution house. But how do we trace the enemy and stop its dangerous acts which imperil the health of millions of Cameroonians?

The fact that expired drugs are being sold out by our pharmacies is enough cause for concern. It puts to question the entire efficacy of the nation's drug control strategy and throws a real scare among those in need of medication.

We are in a hunter-becomes-the-hunted situation because the very pharmacists who have been crying foul over the handling of drugs are the ones before the people's tribunal for not living up to their professional expectations by selling expired drugs. Sick people are, necessarily in a distraught posture because, as it were, they finally do not know who to turn to.

This is the time for public health authorities to intervene energetically for, it is their responsibility to protect the health of Cameroonians. Public health is too serious an issue to be abandoned in the hands of speculative business interests.

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