BY FIKADU BELAY
ADDIS ABABA– Seventy eight private pharmaceutical retailers and health institutions have discarded about 80,620 kilograms of expired drugs from their stocks during the last six months. Addis Ababa City Administration Food, Medicine and Health Care Control Authority also announced that the disposal of the expired medicines had incurred an expense of over 103 million Birr.
The Authority’s Health Institutions Qualification and Control Inspection Director Bedria Hussien told the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) that many pharmaceuticals are still kept in stock beyond their expiration dates instead of being disposed off due to the scarcity of disposal facilities in the capital. She mentioned that some private hospitals currently have equipment for the disposal of expired drugs. Among the government run medical institutions, only Yekatit 12 Hospital in Addis Ababa owns such facilities.
The institution conducts regular inspections twice a year to protect the public from being exposed to expired drugs, she reiterated. Bedria mentioned that administrative measures of suspension of business license from three months up to one year has been applied on some drug retailers in the capital as they were caught in possession of expired drugs in their stocks.
She urged the community to seek adequate information from health professionals while buying medicinal drugs and to carefully check the expiry date. According to the Director, the way the disposal of such expired drugs carried out four years ago had the likelihood to cause severe harm to people and animals, as well as large levels of pollution to the environment’s natural resources, including soil, water bodies, and the weather.
She noted that today’s method of disposal varies depending on the type of drug being disposed off as machines are used to crush and burn solid substances. To lessen the negative effects on soil fertility and water contamination, the ashes are buried.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 2023
