Is public health a forgotten subject?
MEDICINE is not just another article of consumption to meet some kind of consumerist demand. It is meant to cure people of their ailments and not to kill them. Sad to say, an analgesic drug called paracetamol, instead of relieving children of their pain, has killed them.
Reports have it that out of some 34 children from different parts of the country suffering from acute renal failure after they were administered paracetamol syrup of a particular brand, 25 have died at the Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
Paracetamol syrup manufactured by Rid Pharmaceutical Company of Brahmanbaria was behind the death of so many children. Though the offending drug company has meanwhile been closed down by the drug regulatory authorities, it is yet to be known how many more children might have fallen victim to this particular brand of paracetamol syrup.
To all appearances the government has taken the issue seriously. The health minister mentioning that the findings of a primary probe body in his ministry have even identified the poisonous ingredient responsible for the tragedy: diethylene glycol. There is also the four-member probe body constituted by the parliamentary standing committee on health.
What can we expect from such committees? If past experience is any guide, there is no reason to be enthused by another one or two such probe committees on the death of the children from spurious paracetamol syrup.
In the present case, however, we already know the identity of the culprit. It is also known that the drug manufacturer unscrupulously used a poisonous chemical in a medicine meant to relieve pain and bring down temperature, because it was cheaper than the appropriate ingredient called propylene glycol.
How could such an outrage take place in a sector of the industry that is supposed to be engaged in a noble pursuit of serving humanity? Far from demonstrating any semblance of humanity, the company has committed the grave crime of killing children while masquerading as a medicine company!
Granted, the company had no noble intention at all. But how could it get the licence to produce drugs from the government in the first place? What are the criteria for issuing licence to a company that would be producing such a sensitive and vital commodity like medicine?
The lapse of the licencing authorities needs also to be brought under closer scrutiny. How many companies among the 600-odd pharmaceutical firms in the country need also to be brought under fresh scrutiny and their products tested to meet international standards?
The drug administration agency that monitors the activities of the drug companies, the sales of their products, and the stores that deal in them is under-staffed and lacks equipment and other facilities. The existing drug control law in this connection also needs to be updated.
But the inadequacy of manpower, facilities, and law are not the only loopholes through which such dishonest drug companies are able to produce and market such fake medicines.
Efficiency of the drug administration staff as well as their incorruptibility is the most vital condition that has to be ensured so that the population is no more exposed to the dangers of unethical practice by any unscrupulous drug manufacturer.
The government, appropriate law, and an efficient and adequately equipped monitoring mechanism is also not the last word. The public in general should also be aware in an active manner about the issues that have to do with their health, hygiene, and well-being.
The death of so many children after the use of the analgesic drug in question should have sent a shockwave across the length and breadth of the country. The citizens' groups, the media, the child protection and various rights bodies, and those concerned about the health and hygiene of the citizenry should have by now staged protest demonstrations on the city streets. But nothing like that has happened so far.
It is hardly surprising that we have not come across any such activities by the concerned bodies. For street demonstrations and protests in Bangladesh are generally accepted as the stuff of power and politics and the issues they involve.
Matters of public and social interest are hardly capable of creating that kind of impact on the public mind. The media, too, is not quite prepared to allot as much space for such soft(!) issues as it would for those involving party politics.
It is therefore about time we brought about a change in the prevailing culture of over-enthusiasm regarding party political matters and passivity about issues of public interest. The tragedy of so many children falling victim to a spurious drug made locally is undoubtedly a very serious issue that should stir the public conscience in a very active fashion.
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