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Dr Parirenyatwa

Freeman Razemba Harare Bureau—
HEALTH and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa has urged people to desist from buying pharmaceutical products from unregistered dealers as they will be putting their lives at risk. The minister also warned teenagers especially pupils to avoid abusing drugs such as BronCleer and Histalix cough syrups. In an interview on Wednesday, Dr Parirenyantwa said the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe regularly monitors drugs in the streets although there were some leakages. “It’s very disconcerting that there are these drugs on the market and I know that our Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe regularly monitor drugs in the streets but obviously there are these leakages and I strongly urge the public not to buy drugs from the streets.

“They must buy all drugs from registered institutions such as pharmacies or properly registered stores and preferably with a doctor’s prescription,” he said. Dr Parirenyatwa said they had noted that there were a lot of pupils who were abusing BronCleer and Histalix especially from affluent schools and urged headmasters to keep a closer eye on the behavioural change of these pupils. “To the children, this is a very dangerous habit because when you start with BronCleer, you go to higher drugs, you go to stronger drugs, you go to more addictive drugs until you end up taking cocaine. So don’t do it and don’t start,” he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa’s sentiments also come after people with various ailments could have been exposed to deadly medication after police recently recovered over 420,000 tablets countrywide, including fake ARVs, during a regional operation. Also recovered during the operation involving Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa and Tanzania were lotions, cigarettes, soaps, bottles of Histalix and BronCleer cough syrups, among other illicit drugs. The operation code-named, “Giaboia 11”, was conducted by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the International Police (Interpol) between Wednesday and Friday last week.

During the operation, police arrested 395 suspects, including a bogus doctor who was operating a clinic in Karoi and dispensing unregistered drugs that were recovered. For the entire operation, police recovered 424,257 tablets of various types, including fake ARVs, 2,399 tubes of various lotions, 2,000 tubes of various creams, 307 bottles of Histalix cough syrup, 11,000 bottles of BronCleer, six pharmaceutical soaps and 300,000 Pacific cigarettes.