Trade of medications on the streets of Baghdad
Various types of medications are sold Openly, now, on the streets of Baghdad. It is a kind of trade that draws its sustenance from the citizen's health. Citizens who despaired of finding certain treatments turn to the street hoping to find them, especially those with chronic diseases.
Dr. Mustafa Ali, internal diseases specialist, said that "The sale of various medications on the streets and sidewalks in this form is a serious problem. The control agencies in the Ministry of Health ought to pay attention and control it because of its negative effects on social life".
He added: "The government must curb this phenomenon, which began to aggravate day after day; through following-up the leakage of medicines".
He pointed out that "The control agencies in the Ministry of Health must subject private medicine stores and non-governmental pharmacies to strict laws and punish the traders in these medicines".
The Ministry of Health had issued an order to shut down and withdraw the license of any pharmacy or private medicine store that import medicines without an import license from the Ministry of Health. Dr. Mustafa Ali added: "one of the reasons behind the emergence of the sale of medicines on the pavements and the high price of rare medicines is the inadequate treatments supplied to governmental hospitals".
He said that "this encouraged the private sector to import these medications, especially narcotic drugs which are usually used in surgical operations, which lead to the destruction of the lives of thousands of young people and lead to the deviation of many of them to various crimes".
Meanwhile, a source at the Ministry of Health, who requested anonymity, said that "the ministry has a plan to fight this trade but administrative corruption in some health institutions stands in the way of this plan".
He pointed out that "most vendors on the pavement obtain medicines through making agreements with staff of pharmacies in governmental hospitals".
In the same context, Ahmad Mohammad Dawoud, a pharmacy owner, was concerned about the weak control procedures imposed by Iraqi government on Iraq's borders, which was exploited by the some to bring large stockpiles of types of medicines that are not subjected to control and scrutiny".
He added that "medicine dealers try to buy cheap treatments, which may contain infectious viruses in order to reap maximum profits at the expense of the citizens' health".
Dawoud pointed out that to "the fact that large part of the medicines sold on the pavements are leaked from government institutions by some employees of the Health".
Abu Hamza, one of the medicines vendors on the pavement at Shorja Market, said:" I deal with a group of governmental pharmacies staffs who supply me with different medicines at reasonable prices".
He added: "I obtain part of these medicines from some governmental medicine stores, also".
On the nature of dealing with the uses of these medicines, he said: "the pharmacist who supplies me with these medicines tells me how to use each type of them".
On his part, the citizen, Qassim Hassan, said he buys medicines from public streets because" "they are not found in governmental hospitals and pharmacies," explaining that "his need for these medicines forces him to buy them from there".
He added: "Some governmental hospitals themselves ask the citizens to buy medicines from public places because they ran out of them, like anesthetics and arteries coloring treatments needed by specialists in heart operations".
Source: Iraq Directory
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Posted on Monday, January 01