An alarm has been raised following a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) about contraceptive drugs, that are being sold to Kwale County teenage ladies.
According to the study, their quality is unknown in addition to untrained pharmacy attendants injecting the unsuspecting clients. In line with the national guidelines, the private pharmacies can stock and sell the injectable contraceptives, although any injections should strictly done by a trained and qualified medic.
The study notes, "participants had confirmed about the injectable contraceptives being sold and administered in pharmacies. Youths reportedly purchasing them also having confessed to getting injections from the pharmacies."
According to the report, the problem was not only limited to Kwale County residents alone but a countrywide problem as well. As reported by the Standard, the study involved 60 pharmacies, NGO representatives, and Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) inspectors.
Reportedly, Coast region was mostly faced by issues of drug quality, owing to the increased smuggling from a neighboring country.
"There are problems with drugs coming from Tanzania via illegal routes either in buses or suitcases. Such are counterfeits or false products and especially the Oral Contraceptive pill popularly namely Postinor-2. There have been innumerable complaints," noted an official from PPB.
PPB representatives acknowledged the existence of such malpractices but decried about the social media connections by the dealers, hindering their efforts to fight the vice.
"These illegal pharmacies own illegal social media networks whereby they will only text each other, that a PPB vehicle has been seen around the area and the next minute you find the pharmacies shut," one of the inspectors said.
Despite the PPB having developed a SMS verification system, efforts had been largely thwarted, which the initial intentions for the system being to help consumers establish how authentic an outlet was.
Worst of all, was the situation whereby qualified and licensed medics rented out their licences to quacks who then used them to set up the unauthentic pharmacies.