Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

A patient holds drugs: there are more than two million HIV positive people in Tanzania.

Dodoma — The government has reassured Tanzanians using ARVs to take the drugs without worries since those distributed all over the country are safe and meet the required standard.

The reassurance comes amid controversy of fake ARVs being distributed in the country thus creating tension and worries amongst users.

The Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashid, told the Assembly that it was true that some fake drugs had been detected in the distribution channel, insisting that the problem has been addressed by removing such counterfeit drugs.

He said that after intensive investigations by the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA), Medical Store Department (MSD) and Tanzania pharmaceutical industries (TPI), the said fake ARVs were removed from distribution centres.

Dr Rashid said that the government will continue empowering TFDA to ensure that it enthusiastically improves its core duty of checking out the standards of the drugs made and distributed in the country. He also declared that the ministry has done more to ensure that ARVs are available and the HIV victims get them without any difficulty.