(Zaman Al Wasl)- Uncontrolled and expired medicines have been spreading in opposition-held areas in northern Syria what put civilians' live at risk, activists and medcis said.
Most of the drugs enter to Syria through Bab al-Salama border crossing near the town of Azaz, which lacks to health control or laboratories to take samples and verify whether its valid or not.
Dr. Mamoun Sayed Issa, the medical coordinator in Ata'a association told Zaman al-Wasl that most expired medicines come from multiple countries though Turkey to reach the Syrian crossings without opening the containers.
Statistics show that the pharmaceutical trade ranks second in the world after the arms trade, and invests billions of dollars in fake drugs, especially from East Asia.
Doctors warn against taking expired medicines because they cause serious complications such as pregnancy abortion, convulsions, or shortness of breath.
Issa raised this issue a year ago at a meeting at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Gaziantep city. But no one moves a finger, he added.
Population in northern Syria has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories in other parts of the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed to the northwestern province.
For his part, the former head of public prosecution in Idlib province, Judge Mohamed Nour Hmaidi, said entering expired medicines or powder milk to northern Syria is not new.
In 2014, a milk shipment was destroyed after it entered rebel-held areas through Idlib’s Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
The milk was manufactured in Germany at the request of the Iranian Ministry of Industry in Germany. After it had been expired, the Iranians put a fake expiry label and send it into ‘liberated areas', according to Hmaidi.
The Customs Department in Bab al-Hawa crossing plays a key role in eliminating irregularities, such as smuggling operations carried out by warlords who aim to inflict the greatest harm to the Syrian people, Hamidi said.
Dr. Mohamed Raed al-Hamdo, a specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology, said there is a medicine control department currently operating in Idlib province to monitor shipments of medicines entering liberated areas.
However, the problem of expired and adulterated medicines is not limited to Idlib and its countryside But has become sweeping the Syrian pharmaceutical market in both regime and opposition held-areas.
Al-Hamdo indicated to another issue related to the fake medicine, which is the problem of Pharmacists who sell drugs without supervision or control.
Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 560,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.