Chembe bemoans irregular supply of drugs in Mkushi
By Isaac Zulu in Luano valley Mkushi
Tue 28 Aug. 2012, 10:17 CAT
CHIEF Chembe of the Lala people in Mkushi district says three rural health centres in his chiefdom have had irregular supply of drugs due to lack of reliable transport that can withstand the poor road in Luano Valley.
Briefing Mkushi district commissioner Christopher Chibuye who paid a courtesy call on him on Saturday, chief Chembe said Chimika, Chembe and Liteta health posts had been having erratic supply of drugs because the District Health Management did not have a vehicle that can be used on poor roads.
But Chibuye informed chief Chembe that the district had procured a Toyota Land Cruiser using the constituency development fund and would specifically be used to attend to transport concerns in Luano Valley.
And Chibuye said the government's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit will send relief food to Luano Valley in two weeks time following concerns of hunger in the area.
Chief Chembe told Chibuye that people in his area were scared to cultivate their fields for fear of being killed by the Mailoni brothers who have been killing people in the area.
"People have fled this area…they have gone to the plateau because they are scared of being killed by Febian Mailoni and his brothers," explained shief Chembe. "Farming activities have been disturbed. My people have stopped going to their fields despite the fact that we grow maize twice in a year here. And because they are living in constant fear of the Mailoni brothers, hunger has hit this area. Don't say 'hunger is looming'."
Chibuye said the only challenge in the transportation of relief food was the deplorable state of the road but assured that the government would ferry the consignment by air.
"Your Royal Highness, I can assure you that we are aware of what is going on in your chiefdom. And in two weeks time, we shall bring relief food…We shall use a chopper. We have changed the agent to do the distribution of relief food, we have engaged the Reformed Church of Zambia. They are the ones that will be distributing relief food," said Chibuye.
Labels: CHIEFS, MEDICINE
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Counterfeit drugs a serious problem - Mwape
By Fridah Nkonde
Tue 28 Aug. 2012, 10:28 CAT
PHARMACEUTICAL Regulatory Authority Director General Esnart Mwape has said counterfeit products have become a very serious matter in Zambia. And Mwape says the authority's biggest challenge is people operating illegal drug stores in the country.
During a donation of four mobile compact labs to detect counterfeit medicines to Zambia by Merck, Mwape said the minilabs would help the authority minimise some of the challenges that it was facing in detecting counterfeit medicines.
She said currently, seven minilabs were already being used in the country and that each additional minilab made a valuable contribution to quality control of medicines.
"Consumers need to be a bit proactive when dealing with medicines. Whenever consumers notice anything wrong with the medicine, there is need for them to report to their health care providers. The minilab is just one strategy that we will use to help detect counterfeit medicines because it is quiet a big challenge for PRA to prevent people from dealing in counterfeit products," Mwape said.
She said one could not see the difference between a counterfeit product and a genuine one because there was no big difference.
"You can't tell by just looking because the packaging is the same. It is impossible for consumers to tell whether it is a genuine product or not. As regulators, we try by all means to screen all products that come on the market," she said.
Meanwhile, Merck South Africa managing director Klaus Boehm said counterfeit products were a serious threat to healthcare in many countries.
Boehm said the mobile compact laboratories were globally unique for their ability to detect counterfeits quickly, cost-effectively and reliably.
He said with minilabs, it was possible to relieve bottlenecks in quality control for medicines, especially in rural areas.
"The international police organisation estimates that up to 30 per cent of all medicines in Africa are either counterfeit or of inferior quality. The minilabs offers quick, simple and low-cost test methods to check medicines for external abnormalities, identity, and content," he said.
One minilab is worth about K24,400,600.
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COMMENT - Truvada is made by Gilead Sciences, which previously was headed by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They were caught in fraud over the 'birdflue' vaccines.
Truvada only approved for treatment of HIV - Chikusu
By Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 19 July 2012, 12:40 CAT
DEPUTY Minister of Health Dr Patrick Chikusu says the drug, Truvada, has only been approved for treatment of HIV and not prevention in Zambia.
Responding to a question on the groundbreaking approval of use of the drug to prevent HIV for the first time, Dr Chikusu said proper studies and guidelines were required before the government and HIV-based organisations could encourage people to utilise the drug.
The BBC on Tuesday quoted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying Truvada can be used by those at high risk of infection and anyone who might engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners.
According to the BBC, studies showed that the drug reduced the risk of contracting HIV by up to 73 per cent and that the drug is approved in the UK for the treatment of HIV, but not prevention.
The BBC stated that some health workers and groups active in the HIV community had, however, opposed a green light for the once-daily pill.
There have been concerns the circulation of such a drug could engender a false sense of security and many people will take more risks. There have also been fears that a drug-resistant strain of HIV could develop.
Truvada, made by California-based Gilead Sciences, is already backed by the FDA to be taken with existing antiretroviral drugs for people who have HIV.
Studies from 2010 showed that Truvada reduced the risk of HIV in healthy gay men - and among HIV-negative heterosexual partners of HIV-positive people - by between 44 per cent and 73 per cent.
Dr Chikusu said the drug was being used in Zambia especially to curb mother-to-child transmission of HIV to suppress the viral load in the mother's blood, thereby reducing the chances of transmission.
"The viral load comes down, while the CD4 is at the right count. The transmission there, comes to zero. This is also what we have found in a mother-child treatment; when we put the mother right from the start on treatment. So we are looking at the (suppressing) viral load and antiretroviral therapy," Dr Chikusu said.
"It is used for treatment, it suppresses the virus, but only when taken at the right time, for instance not less than 72 hours of the period after having sexual intercourse, it's completely prevented. The advantage for those who are infected is when the viral load is suppressed, TB and other related diseases is definitely out."
He said the government was concerned that the drug would be on the bus stops soon.
"Many who feel they have compromised themselves or if they just slept with a sex worker and they are not sure, they can take the drug at the expense of other safer alternative methods such as condoms, circumcision and abstinence," Dr Chikusu said.
"The question and problem could be if there is resistance; do we have a fallback? So that has to be taken a bit more carefully."
He said his ministry was making inquiries on how best to utilise the drug in addition to other existing alternatives for both treatment and prevention.
"We are trying to find a way to roll it, which will also detect the various resistance forms. Right now any medication must be regulated," said Dr Chikusu.
The treatment costs about US$ 15,000 a year.
Labels: HIV/AIDS, MEDICINE
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HIV-negative Zim women test positive after drug trials
Saturday, 12 November 2011 23:40
Shamiso Yikoniko
Health Correspondent
About 127 Zimbabwean women who were HIV negative are feared to be now HIV positive after they participated in trials that were aimed at testing a set of drugs that medical experts thought could reduce the risk of infection.
Tenofovir, a key drug used in the study, has since been dropped after it failed to shield participants from contracting the virus. Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE) project director Dr Nyaradzo Mgodi told The Sunday Mail last Friday that the women were part of a group that was always at risk of infection.
She said the project co-ordinators were still working to establish the exact number of the infected. She said participants who tested positive will receive HIV counselling, contraceptives and other medical support services. The participants are predominantly sexually active married or single women who live in communities with a high HIV prevalence.
“The decision to discontinue the use of the Tenofovir tablet in VOICE came after the drugs were found to be ineffective in preventing HIV contraction among the women enrolled for the trials,” she said.
“A total of 127 women in Zimbabwe have been affected. The Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) recommended that the VOICE study discontinue evaluating Tenofovir tablets, saying the study would be unable to show the difference between the effects of Tenofovir and placebo tablets.” Dr Mgodi said the safety of participants remained the research team’s uppermost priority. She said the study would proceed in line with efforts to develop a microbicide for women.
“The team is especially grateful to all of the VOICE participants whose commitment to this trial has already helped gain insight into the oral Tenofovir tablets for preventing HIV among women.
“All VOICE participants will be informed about the decision to modify the study. The participants will be provided with information about where they can receive HIV testing and counselling, contraception and other medical or support services as needed. “Women in the oral Tenofovir group, who became HIV-infected and/or pregnant during VOICE and are enrolled in a Microbicide Trials
Network ancillary study, may continue to participate in this study.”
The VOICE project was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa in 2009 to help develop a microbicide for women. A microbicide is a new product tailor-made to protect women against HIV infection.
The drug comes in the form of tablets, vaginal gels or creams. A total of 4 077 South African, 630 Zimbabwean and 322 Ugandan women enrolled for the trials, which were initiated by the Microbicide Trials Network. In Zimbabwe, researchers approached women in communities countrywide highly susceptible to HIV. The prospective participants signed consent documents spelling out the study objectives and the risks they were likely to face.
Participants have an option to drop out of the research and resume at an opportune time. They undergo medical examinations periodically.
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Disease Control Centre director Dr Portia Manangazira said the Medical Research Council approved the study.
She said her department was, however, yet to receive reports of infected participants.
"The ministry has not received any reports of the dropping of the oral tenofovir from the study as well as reports on the infected participants," she said.
The study is being undertaken within a trial design of the daily use of an anti-retroviral tablet and ARV-based gel. Active truvada and a placebo are the common drugs while the gels include active tenofovir and a placebo.
Participants were grouped according to the specific drug or gel on trial. All three countries have, however, since stopped using oral tenofovir.
The number of participants who might have contracted the virus during the study in South Africa and Uganda could not be immediately established.
Research shows that women account for 60 percent of HIV positive adults in sub-Saharan Africa. Young women in Southern Africa are five times more likely to contract the virus than their male counterparts.
All new global infections are reportedly among women aged between 15 and 24.
Dr Mgodi said although correct and consistent use of condoms prevents HIV, women could not always successfully negotiate the use of the contraceptive.
She said women required preventive methods they could control such as a vaginal gel or an oral tablet.
Labels: HIV/AIDS, MEDICINE
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PRA says illegal drug stores a big problem
By Mwila Chansa-Ntambi
Sun 03 July 2011, 04:00 CAT
THE problem of illegal drug stores is big, says Pharmaceuticals Regulatory Authority (PRA) regulatory officer Dr Zuma Munkombwe. In an interview at the on-going Zambia International Trade Fair in Ndola, Dr Munkombwe observed that the problem of illegal drug stores was common especially in areas that did not have registered pharmacies.
“We try to educate the public and the people involved that they cannot carry on with business of selling medicines if they do not have qualified people and if they themselves are not qualified,” he said.
Dr Munkombwe said PRA’s awareness activities had generated public interest because most people were now aware of the dangers associated with the illegal sale of drugs.
He said the public needed to know that medicines sold in registered pharmacies or those accessed from hospitals underwent rigorous processes before being authorised to sell in Zambia hence the quality of these medicines was assured.
“We did a survey to look at medicines being sold in pharmacies and we found that over 95 percent are registered medicines and the bit that was not registered was allowed to come in into the country under special circumstances,” he said.
Dr Munkombwe added that PRA also regulated medicines intended for animal use because animals equally needed quality medicines.
And interpreting this year’s theme, ‘Innovation for Competitiveness’, PRA public relations officer Ludovic Mwape said the theme meant embracing relevant new technologies such as ICTs for the benefit of both the public and the pharmaceutical industry.
Mwape said to PRA, the theme also meant improving internal and external collaboration with other agencies such as the Zambia Bureau of Standards, the Drug Enforcement Commission and other stakeholders in intensifying inspections.
Labels: CONSUMERS, MEDICINE
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Zim nurse pioneers UK sugar medicine
by
15/10/2009 00:00:00
RUBBING sugar into wounds could cure painful infections including bedsores, research shows. The traditional African remedy is being trialled in British hospitals after a study led by a senior nurse raised in Zimbabwe. As a child, Moses Murandu watched his father put crushed sugar cane on villagers' wounds and grew up thinking it was a widely used treatment. When he moved to England he was surprised to find doctors did not use it.
His six-month study involved 21 patients at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham whose wounds had not responded to conventional treatment. It showed that pouring granulated sugar on to bed sores, leg ulcers or amputations before dressing can kill the bacteria that prevents healing and causes chronic pain.
Bacteria need water to survive but sugar draws water from the wound into the dressing.
Mr Murandu, 43, believes the technique, which was passed down from his great-grandfather, could save the NHS billions. 'The village where I grew up was very small and we didn't have a great deal of medicine available to us,' he said. 'Doctors here tend to forget the traditional medicines that have been working for thousands of years.'
Bosses at the Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham have been so impressed that he has been awarded £25,000 to treat up to 100 more patients with sugar.
Delighted Moses, a medical lecturer from the University of Wolverhampton, said: 'Using granulated sugar in wounds has never been done in the UK before, although sugar paste has been used.
'While salt is painful, sugar is not and it reduces the pain drastically. Sugar is also much cheaper than expensive medicines and it has proven to be just as effective.'
Billions of pounds that is currently spent on medicines could be saved if the treatment is adopted by the NHS.
Moses added: 'I was happy for the patients who suffer from terrible and debilitating wounds with little hope of getting better, as this treatment can ease their pain.
'I would really like to see sugar treatment used in many more places because I know that it works.'
Moses will use the £25,000 prestigious Fondation Le Lous Scientific Research Innovation Award grant that he was awarded from Herve Le Lous - a French company - for a wider study that treats around 100 patients at four different hospitals.
Jacqui Fletcher, a board member of Herve Le Lous, said: 'In the UK we have a habit of saying "In countries that can't afford proper dressings they use other things, but when you are here you have the freedom and luxury of choosing a whole range of alternatives".
'Treating wounds with sugar has been a wive's tale for a number of years but this is the first time that medical evidence has proven that it works.
'Moses didn't think that way, he challenged current thinking. He takes the view that he used sugar very effectively, therefore why wouldn't it work equally well here?' -
Daily Mail
Labels: MEDICINE, SUGAR, ZIMBABWE
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Distributors cut imports of drugs by 40 per cent
By Joan Chirwa
Wednesday July 02, 2008 [04:00]
LOCAL distributors of pharmaceutical products have this year cut the number of imports by 40 per cent owing to the government’s revision of fees for the industry. From over 1,400 drugs retained last year, nine local distributors have this year managed to retain only 929 products, saying the business was slowly becoming uneconomic.
The local distributors have warned of a serious shortage of drugs on the local market in the medium term resulting from the new regulations.
The government, through the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (PRA) early this year came up with a Statutory Instrument which compelled pharmaceutical distributors in the country to pay product renewal and registration licence fees at almost 400 per cent more than the previous charges.
For example, imported finished products now attract a registration fee of K3.8 million from K759,000 per product type per annum while retention fees have been hiked from K505,980 to K2.5 million.
Registration for products packaged in Zambia now attract registration fee of K3.3 million while retention fee is charged at K2.5 million for each product type per annum.
Zambia’s pharmaceutical licence fees are higher than most of the countries in the region.
Tanzania is charging US $100 (about K330,000) retention fee per product per annum while its registration fee currently stands at US $500 (about K1.6 million).
The local distributors say it had become uneconomic to maintain certain product lines as they were not sold in bulk compared to the amount of money required to retain such drugs on the Zambian market.
Zambia Pharmaceutical Business Forum (ZPBF) chairperson Frank Ng’ambi said the pharmaceutical industry which had not recorded any growth for the past 15 years was likely to collapse.
“Ultimately, the industry will shrink. Like any other industry in Zambia, production of pharmaceutical products is not cheap, so importing is the best option. The forum proposed that the increments should be gradual, so that the industry is not injured,” said Ng’ambi.
There is also a fear of monopoly by a few companies that will afford to register and retain a good number of products for the local market.
And ZPBF vice-chairperson Regina Mudondo said the impact of the new regulations would be felt at the end of this year, saying some people might not afford to access certain life- saving drugs as they would either be too expensive or not available at all on the market.
Officials at PRA could not comment as director-general Esnart Mwape was reportedly in a meeting by press time. Ministry of health permanent secretary Dr Simon Miti was also out of reach.
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Misguided departure from ARVs can be costly, warns minister
By Times Reporter
IT is sad that some AIDS patients are dying after abandoning anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) for tetrasil and selenium, Health Deputy Minister Lwipa Puma has said. Dr Puma said some patients tended to shift to other treatment options that some people promise could cure them.
He said this in an interview in Lusaka yesterday after officiating at the launch of a Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS (NZP+) research-based policy dialogue access to medical services report.
Dr Puma said he wondered why some patients were spending huge sums of money on drugs that could never cure them when the Government was offering free ARVs in all health institutions.
“This option medication which people are cheated about is contributing to unnecessary deaths among those living with the virus,” he said.
He also advised that anti-retroviral treatment should be sought early enough, before one’s CD4 count declines.
Dr Puma said a survey in 12 districts showed that general infrastructural problems constituted a major obstacle to both clients and healthcare providers.
He said this year, the ministry had allocated some money to construction of hospitals in Chiengi, Kaputa, Lufwanyama, and Mpulungu districts.
The projects would cost between K1.7 billion to K2 billion.
Staff houses would also be built in an effort to bring health service delivery closer to people.
Dr Puma said the ministry was working to ensure that it this year placed 52,000 adults and 8,000 children on HIV/AIDS treatment.
Earlier, NZP+ chairperson Miriam Banda reiterated the organisation’s position on encouraging people to stick to ARVs.
Ms Banda urged those on ARVs not to stop the treatment but to continue until a cure was found.
Labels: AIDS, MEDICINE
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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.
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