CLOSURE OF DRUG MARKETS.. MY CANCER PATIENTS SLOWLY DYING!

Heavy Casualty is brewing in the Health Sector in my region and everyone seems to be keeping quiet.

I'm in no way supporting fake and adulterated drugs.

Fact is that not all non Nafdac registered drugs are fake.( Because we have been getting good clinical responses from most of them)

As a matter of fact, almost 90% of available cancer drugs in the pharmacy shops are not registered and are sought from the drug markets in Onitsha, Lagos and Aba.

And currently, almost all the pharmacies in Abia State are  not having any cancer drugs for breast and Colon cancers.

Many of my patients have skipped their medications for two weeks, no end in site!

All efforts to source for any available cancer drugs whether registered or unregistered have failed 

Who cleared most of these drugs from the ports ?

What alternative plan does government through NAFDAC have for the many Nigerians who are currently suffering and dying slowly while claiming they are protecting them by closing the markets in a commando-like manner, in the so called democracy.

Wouldn't it have made more sense for NAFDAC to search these shops quickly in the presence of drug owners and fish out the criminals amongst them while allowing those doing genuine business to continue.

What's the Federal government policy on drug importation and distribution.

In saner climes, there's no open drug markets as we have in Nigeria, I concur, but then at those places, there are clear policies on how drugs are brought into the country and the distribution pattern.

This senseless pattern of allowing people import drugs which get cleared by customs and Nafdac at the sea and airports only to pursue them into the markets, break into the shops in their absence and hold press conferences tagging them criminals while the masses whom they pretend to protect are dying slowly should be condemned by well meaning Nigerians.

The owners of the shops are known.

Let us be civil for once in this country.... get the criminals amongst the lot and prosecute them while allowing genuine business men to do their businesses.

The one that's paining me so much now is that many cancer patients are currently developing resistance to chemotherapy as a result of skipping their medications due to the unwarranted prolonged drug markets closure.

Dr Ezeonwumelu Emeka 

Surgical Oncologist 

Umuahia