PUL-I-ALAM - The residents of central Logar province are complaining about low-quality medicines being sold at local pharmacies.
Haji Samiullah, a resident of Baraki Barak district, told Pajhwok Afghan News that people took their patients to Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, from the district for better treatment.
“Whenever people visit doctors in the district, they prescribe medicines which are not only found in their own stops and having low-quality,” he said.
Samiullah said recently his wife had a stomach problem and he took her to Pul-i-Alam for treatment. “My wife’s condition deteriorated after using the medicines and I was forced to take her to Pakistan.”
Zahid, a resident of Kalangar area, said the bulk of medicines were imported illegally to Afghanistan through Khost and Paktia provinces. He accused the authorities of being complicit in the phenomenon.
Some other residents expressed similar views and asked the relevant organs to resolve the issue at the earliest possible.
Mohammad Nasir Ghairat, a public representative, confirmed that medicines were being smuggled to Logar illegally. “Spurious drugs are being smuggled from Pakistan and are poisoning patients.”
Dr. Mohammad Ayub, a local medical store owner, said some pharmacies were importing cheap drugs because people could not buy expensive drugs.
According to Ayub, a packet Amoxicillin (a commonly used antibiotic drug) from Bacham Company was sold for 70 afghanis but the same drug of Iranian origin was sold for 25 afghanis.
In response to these complains, Dr. RasoulGul Samar, provincial public health director, said they had prevented most of illegal drug imports to the province.
He said: “I don’t reject the sale of low-quality medicines but it is not as much as claimed by the people.”
He said expired and low-quality medicines were being collected from all medical stores in the province with the support of NDS personnel and police.
“There are some companies which make spurious drugs with the label and marks of the original medicines, we don’t have labs for their reorganization,” he complained.
Referring to the issue, police spokesman Shapoor Ahmadzai said expired and low-quality medicines’ smuggling had been prevented and police confiscated such drugs two times during the ongoing year.
“Our police personnel are striving day and night to prevent import of low quality medicines.” (Pajhwok)