Never take traditional medicines, cosmetics without MoH stamps, consumers reminded

BINTULU: Consumers here are strongly reminded against buying and consuming any traditional medicine or cosmetic products that are not registered and approved by the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Bintulu Hospital’s Pharmacy Department head Perit Egah cautions that some nonprescription medicines can be harmful to one’s health and may even cause death.

“Please don’t take this for granted because if you don’t take medicines as instructed by your doctor, it may have an adverse effect,” he spoke at the launch of ‘Medication Safety Awareness Week’ themed “Medication Without Harm’ on the lobby of Bintulu Hospital yesterday.

The programme, which runs until Oct 12, is jointly conducted by the Pharmacy Department and Nursing Unit of Bintulu Hospital.

“I would like to invite the public to come to this event as we have the informative exhibitions and activities including health talks on safety medication.

“We also bring along the pharmaceutical enforcers to explain about the registered traditional and cosmetic products in the market,” said Perit.

It is stated that all medicinal products in Malaysia, including the imported ones, must be registered with the MoH before they can be marketed to consumers.

Registered medicines must carry both the registration numbers and the Meditag hologram sticker on the labels or packaging.

According to Perit, who is also the organising chairman of the programme here, the Medication Safety Awareness Week is an annual worldwide event.

He said his department and the Nursing Unit of Bintulu Hospital are jointly running the programme because they want to encourage active participation and attention from the nurses when it comes to safety medication activities.

“In other hospitals, they carry out this kind of event separately, but here we have good cooperation from the nurses in our endeavour to minimise medical errors,” said Parit, while expressing his hope for getting the same cooperation from the doctors as well.

Bintulu Hospital director Dr Davis Johnraj launched the programme yesterday, witnessed by his deputy Dr Sivashumugam Sangaran and matron Molen Ahua