Govt not dispensing expired drugs - Kambwili
ITis not true that Government is dispensing expired medicines to various health centres, opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) president Chishimba Kambwili has said. Mr Kambwili said that he had made an impromptu visit to both Medical Stores in Lusaka and the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZMRA) to verify if HoneyBee had supplied expired drugs, and found that it was not true. This follows allegations that HoneyBee Pharmacy had supplied toxic drugs after being illegally awarded a US$17 million supply tender by the Ministry of Health. According to a statement issued by NDC deputy media director Kaoma Musonda, Mr Kambwili on Friday last week visited Medical Stores and ZMRA and discovered that the allegations were false. Mr Kambwili who condemned public health care misinformation, said what he saw was contrary to what was peddled in the media. He said after interacting with authorities at Medical Stores and ZAMRA, he was assured that Government was not dispensing expired medicines to various health centres. “ZAMRA explained that the authority had a duty of making sure that the public was protected from harm. Before any medicines are brought into the country, there are processes which take place in terms of evaluating products from the information point of view,” Mr Kambwili said. Mr Kambwili urged stakeholders in the public domain to be cautious when it comes to disseminating information bordering on health because wrong information could make people in rural areas to shun health care services.