Humphrey Nkonde
28 March 2008
Gaborone — A dark cloud has enveloped Zambia following the decision by the Ministry of Health to withdraw Depo Provera, an injectable family planning drug used by women to prevent pregnancies.
The drug has been withdrawn from all pharmacies and hospitals in Zambia after widespread fears that it was contaminated with HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS. The drug was sourced from the United States. But the US Embassy in Lusaka denied that the drug could be contaminated, saying there were stringent measures in the US to prevent contamination.
But Depo Provera has caused such an uproar among Zambians that a Member of Parliament has demanded that the American ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez, a woman, be injected with the drug to demonstrate its safety. This led to Speaker of the National Assembly Amusa Mwanamwambwa to order Health Minister Dr Brian Chituwo to issue a ministerial statement in the House. Earlier, Dr Chituwo, who worked in various hospitals in Zambia as a medical doctor, said on national televisio that it was not possible, according the biology of HIV, to live outside the human body.
Dr Chituwo further explained that drugs are kept at room temperature and not at body temperature, another scientific explanation to dispel allegations against Depo Provera.
Some medical books have also indicated that the virus cannot live outside the human body for four seconds.
Hence, it is difficult for the virus to be transmitted in barber shops, where customers are injured. Moreover, the micro-nutrients on which the virus thrives are in the human body. But some learned Zambians have indicated that there were unconfirmed reports that Depo Provera weakened white blood cells, which defend the body against viruses, bacteria and other micro-organisms that cause disease. They said this during a recent national television National Watch programme in which viewers were allowed to SMS their comments to the national broadcaster.
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Zambia, Dr Lungwani Muungo, explained later there was no reason for people to be agitated by rumours that Depo Provera was contaminated with HIV. He said Dr Chituwo would issue another statement regarding whether Zambian women should continue to use the drug. Dr Muungo emphasised that it was incumbent upon the manufacturer to ensure that the drug was safe for use or for members of the public to alert health authorities on complaints they had against certain drugs. This shows that the regulatory bodies only act when members of the public complain rather than making independent tests on drugs entering Zambia. It is not the first time that complaints have arisen regarding imported drugs in Zambia. Two years ago, there were complaints by pregnant women that they had severe side effects after taking Fancida, a drug that replaced chroloquine in the treatment of malaria. Malaria has been estimated to kill a child every 30 seconds in Africa and costs sub-Saharan Africa in treatment, loss of man hours and negatives in the region of US$ 12 billion per year.
Up to now, Fancida is being administered by some clinics and hospitals when earlier reports indicated that people had developed resistance against the drug.
Last year, there were reports that Viracept, a second line drug in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, was contaminated. Some HIV/AIDS experts in Europe found that the drug was emitting a foul stench, which resulted in the withdrawal of the drug from African countries, including Zambia and Botswana.
Information released by Zambia's Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority regarding the drug was based on findings outside Zambia. It said long use of the drug on rats was found to cause cancer.
That created a problem since HIV/AIDS patients have to adhere to their medication.
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