DailyMirror
Around 300 patients had died so far this year as the authorities had not followed a proper drug policy, Prof. Senaka Bibile Commemorative Association said yesterday.
The Secretary of the Union Dr. Jayantha Bandara claimed that at the moment government had no proper policy to control diseases like dengue and novel influenza; 300 patients died from dengue while 30,000 were affected by the disease this year, and 6 patients died from novel influenza.
He said that around 60 drugs had been identified as substandard and over Rs.500 million worth of drugs were found with lapsed expiry dates this year. He added that the hair particles, pieces of plastic, an insect and a rubber band had been found in the medicine vials and saline bottles this year.
Prof. Senaka Bibile Commemorative Association yesterday staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Healthcare urging government to implement the Senaka Bibile national drug policy. Around 300 members of the Association took part in yesterday’s protest.
“There were no incidents reported like this in our history, this is a worst time in our history. We want to correct these things” he said.
“All the drugs are imported by the government, but they are trying to pass the responsibility on to us about importing low quality and substandard drugs, we strongly protest against that,” he said.
“We invite people to come with us to implement the national drug policy. We will launch district wide protests soon and we are also planning to sign a petition too,” he said.