Maravi

Suspicious contraceptive

Suspicious contraceptive
By Editor
Sunday January 27, 2008 [03:00]

IT is good that the government has moved in quickly to withdraw the suspicious contraceptive, Depo Provera. We say this because recent revelations on the possibility of HIV contaminated Depo Provera, an injectable contraceptive taken by many women not only in Zambia but in many other African countries, is highly disturbing and a matter of great concern to public health.

The immediate fear from such a possibility is that women who have received the contraceptive injection may be at risk of being infected with HIV. Already, health minister Brian Chituwo has told the nation that two tests done by the government indicate that some antibody tests done on the drug were positive.

However, we are also told that the tests which detect the virus itself were negative. It should be understood that these antibodies are chemicals produced by the body in order to fight infection and are the usual means of diagnosing HIV infection in individuals, in combination with other factors.

On the other hand, there seems to be a slight contradiction in the statement issued by the Ministry of Health in that they indicate that the drug has no human serum, but at the same time they say that some antibody tests were positive.

It is an established fact that antibodies are part of human serum. Therefore, the presence of antibodies would point at least to the possibility of there being human serum in the drug and this itself needs more interrogation. We therefore hope that Dr Chituwo and his team at the Ministry of Health will continue with further tests because a clarification on this is important in order to deal with all unanswered questions.

We wish to clearly state that it is a matter of concern that a synthetic drug like Depo Provera should be found to have antibodies to HIV in it for the reason that it brings into question the whole safety of these drugs and the precautions taken to ensure that the drug is safe.

As a drug that is widely distributed in Zambia and Africa by the donor community, it also raises questions on the precautions taken by the donors to ensure the safety of drugs. Not to mention that there are other drugs, such as vaccines, that are obtained from these same sources.

This whole episode also brings into sharp focus our own ability as a nation to ensure that the drugs that are administered to people are indeed safe. Do we really have the capacity to determine the safety of the drugs that are being administered in our health institutions?

Perhaps an important lesson to be drawn from this unfortunate episode is that we should not simply trust such donations and drug sources without having our own stringent quality control and safety measures in place.

It is imperative that drugs are thoroughly tested locally before they are distributed and administered to people regardless of their source. It is unimaginable that we should just take donations the way they come without really checking their safety.

The same measure that was applied in rejecting genetically modified maize in 2002/2003 should be applied to other donations that we get from well-wishers. It is time that we started scrutinising whatever comes into the country in the form of donations. By this, we do not mean to say we should not accept donations. What we need to do is to make sure that whatever comes into the country is thoroughly checked to safeguard the lives of people and generally to guarantee public safety.

And this should not only be limited to donations. We continue to hear of numerous unconfirmed reports that there are a lot of counterfeit drugs on the market which are being taken and distributed by unscrupulous suppliers. All these concerns need to be followed up by appropriate authorities.

On this Depo Provera contraceptive, the immediate assurance to people’s concerns is that there is no possibility of being infected from the injection of the drug since medical experts tell us that antibodies are not infective.

Furthermore, the assurance is that no virus particles were found in the drug. Also, it is a well-studied fact that HIV cannot survive for a long time outside the body, except in specially controlled laboratory conditions.

Therefore, even if it had found its way into the drug through some act of negligence or intended malice, it would not survive long in the dry powder form that the drug is generally stored in. In the early days of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, it was common for people to get infected with HIV whilst getting medical care through contaminated needles and blood, for instance. With advances in our knowledge of HIV, the increased awareness of risks and the stringent testing of products for HIV in our modern environment, such infection is almost unheard of.

This therefore makes it all the more unacceptable to have such reports of possible contamination.
Having said that, now that people have become confident in the ability of the health care system to protect them from getting infected in hospitals and clinics, it is important to safeguard this trust and confidence.

And there can be no better way of doing that than to ensure that such occurrences – as in the case of this suspicious contraceptive - are prevented. We trust that the government, as assured by Dr Chituwo, will get to the bottom of this matter and ensure that the public maintains confidence and trust in our health care system and the services it offers.

Labels: MEDICINE

posted by MrK @ 3:54 AM