Karachi:
The blockade of the roads due to the ongoing protest movement against the construction of new channels on the Indo River could have a devastating impact on the supply of medicines from Sindh to Punjab and other provinces, experts warned on Thursday.
Due to the blockade, the trucks that transported different medications remained trapped in traffic grunts in different places of the National Highway, the Indo road and other roads that go to Punjab. However, experts said that the increase in summer heat was the biggest problem here.
According to experts, medications and pharmaceutical chemicals that remain in the sun or heat for a long period of time could represent a threat to public health, because high temperatures could compromise the quality of medicine and, in many cases, make them totally ineffective.
“Excessive heat and humidity can damage the structure of chemicals in medicines, which makes them less effective or ineffective,” Muhammad Wasil, Citizen’s spokesman Health Foundation (CHF) told The Express.
In some cases, toxic by -products could also be formed, in particular, syrups and suspensions can swell. Heat intensity can weaken the sealing and packaging of bottles and, as a consequence, air or humidity could mix with the medication, “Wasil said.
The Association of Chemicals and Drugists of Pakistan (PCDA), which represents the associates with all aspects of pharmaceutical trade, acknowledged that the supply of medicines faced obstacles due to the closure of the roads in Sindh.
PCDA president Abdul Samad Memon told The Express PAkGazette that suppliers were adopting alternative routes to transport medications on time. “Air are sending important medications, since logistics companies have stopped taking actions for land delivery,” Memon said.
At the moment, Memon did not see a threat of shortage of medicine in the country. “An action, enough for one and a half, remains in each city, while most medications that required the cold chain are sent by air,” he said.
Memon and Wasil confirmed that containers stuck on the Sindh-Punjab border also include drugs and pharmaceutical chemicals. “If the closure of the roads stretched even more, it could create a shortage of medications,” Memon said.
The consumer organizations and experts indicated that, according to the Pakistan Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP) and the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), common medications must be stored between 15 and 30 ° C.
They have advised the government to monitor the actions trapped in transit and confirm its effectiveness through laboratory tests. They said that medications, which did not meet the standards, should be destroyed, so that the possibility of loss of human lives could be eliminated.
