Only Approved Medical Supplies, Please

 

Epidemiology Unit Chief, Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe has urged foreign aid donors for the tsunami victims, to refrain from bringing drugs, chemicals and vaccines without first checking with the Health Ministry. “They should be first registered with the Health Ministry and should be medical items which we approve of", he said.
 
"We will only allow the use of drugs registered with us, and those which are absolutely necessary to use right now. Any other drugs will not be allowed to be stored in our Medical supplies division or else sent to another country", Dr. Abeysinghe said at a media seminar recently.
 
He said that all those bringing such medical items into the country, must first hand them over to the Ministry without distributing them on their own", he reiterated. The Ministry spokesman said that this decision had been taken due to concerns that some of the drugs brought into the country were not among the list of prescribed or registered drugs, and could therefore be unsuitable for use here.

As an example he cited instances of certain drugs used for malaria which were being brought here by donors. "Chloroquin is the drug of choice for malaria in Sri Lanka. So any other drug will have to be stored in our medical supplies division for future use or sent to another country', he said.Asked about immunizing patients against various diseases in the tsunami affected areas, Dr. Abeysinghe said that the Epidemiology has resumed its routine immunization program in all tsunami affected areas as well as the rest of the country. Mobile teams and clinics have been set up in camps to immunize all inmates in camps, the Epidemiology Unit spokesman said. All MOHs in these camps have been instructed to conduct these clinics as soon as possible.

He added that a special focus of the health program was on the control of diarrhea related illnesses, "although there were no major outbreaks of such diseases in any of the camps so far, due to the excellent health system we have in place".