Kampala — Government health units have failed to destroy hundreds of cartons of expired drugs due to lack of resources, according to health workers. They said the drugs were meant to be destroyed from Nakasongola district.

The workers said this at the annual general meeting for the National Drug Authority (NDA) in the southeastern region at Brisk Recreation Hotel in Jinja municipality on Wednesday.

The concern was first raised by the Kaliro district health officer, Dr. Sarah Kasewa.

The expired drugs are mainly for malaria. The Government, according to Kasewa, abolished medication using homapak that contains both chloroquine and phansider for treating malaria because patients were developing resistance to the drugs.

Initially, the drugs were distributed up to the villages where the public could easily access them but when the Government stopped giving them out, they expired in the stores. "Members of the communities are very sensitive and the moment they are told something, they go by that, so they stopped going for the drugs and sought the recommended malaria treatment pack," Kasewa said.

Apparently, the Government recommended the use of coartem. Kasewa also expressed concern over some churches which block their members from taking drugs, claiming only prayers can heal them. The NDA quality manager, Peter Ssali, appealed to health workers to guard the expired drugs from people who could re-brand them and put them back on the market.