Seven suspects have been arrested by officials from the National Drug Authority (NDA) on allegations of vending classified medicine in open shift markets.
The suspects were arrested during a joint operation with police that was conducted in areas of Bukhaweka and Butilu in Namisindwa District and Arapai in Soroti City.
The suspects that include a medical laboratory assistant and other common hawkers were found illegally displaying, selling, and advertising human and veterinary medicine under the scorching sun.
Mr Abiaz Rwamwizi, the Public Relations 0fficer NDA in his statement released on Friday stated that eleven boxes of assorted medicine including ARVs, Antimalarial, and HIV testing kits, veterinary medicine and unregistered herbal products were impounded.
“The suspects are currently held at Mbale District Central Police Station and Soroti Regional Police Station, their files have been handed over to the state attorney for prosecution,” he said.
Mr Rwamwizi said that Hawking of medicine provides an avenue for impure drugs (counterfeits, expired, repackaged, falsified and substandard) to get to the public without the much-needed scrutiny of regulatory agencies.
“The safety, efficacy and quality of drugs sold in open places, especially in shift markets, on transit buses and streets is uncertain because such drugs get exposed to varying extremities of weather conditions as drug hawkers move from one place to another,” he added.
Hawkers are mobile, it is therefore difficult to trace and take regulatory action in cases where the unsuspecting public consumes the hawked drugs and they get life-threatening drug reactions or no health benefit after taking the drugs, as the vendors have no permanent place where they can be traced from.
Hawking of drugs can lead to treatment failures both in humans and animals as they are associated with either ineffectiveness or poor dosages as hawkers are not qualified to prescribe or dispense medicine. This can also increase cases of people who die from preventable causes due misdiagnosis and use of impure drugs.