Stop selling meds on streets: Doc

By JINA AMBA
PORT Moresby General Hospital chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi is urging the public not to buy or sell drugs (medicines) on the streets as it promoted drug-resistant bugs.
Molumi was responding to the media yesterday when asked why tuberculosis (TB) drugs and other antibiotics were sold on the streets by vendors.
He said he was not aware of the issue and it should not happen at all.
“Medicines should not be sold on the streets,” he said.
“Antibiotics should never be sold and TB drugs is worse, because you are only trying to promote drug-resistant bugs.
“When you sell these kind of drugs, especially the antibiotics on the streets, the patients are inadequately treated which means the bugs are not treated well and they become resistant to that.
“Once they become resistant, we need a much stronger drug to treat it.
“While you do the same thing with the stronger drug, there will come a time when no drug is going to work, so this should be discouraged.”
Molumi called on higher authorities to step in to stop the sale of drugs on the streets.
He said TB drugs were provided by the Health Department for free to the public and it should not be sold at all.
“I think we need to raise this issue through the media so that the relevant authorities can take action and stop this things from happening,” he said.
“This is going to affect the hospitals, not only the hospitals but the public.”
Molumi called on relevant authorities through the Health Department to address the issue immediately.