August 25, 2006	Friday	Rajab 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Health authorities of Bagh district of Azad Kashmir have submitted to the federal government laboratory reports of the drugs being supplied to the earthquake-affected people that are suspected to be substandard and unbranded.

Sources in the ministry of law, justice and human rights told Dawn on Thursday that the ministry had sought laboratory reports of the medicines being supplied to people in the district after news about their low quality appeared in the media.

The medicines were donated by the international community and supplied to the local health authorities through the World Health Organisation (WHO). The reports would also be submitted to the National Assembly, where an opposition member has sought them.

Sources said the reports received by the law ministry carried details of a number of drugs, some of them have been proved “substandard” and “unbranded”.

WHO VERSION: Meanwhile, referring to the news item published in Dawn about the quality of food and medicines being supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP) and WHO, a statement issued by WHO said, “WHO has confirmed that all drugs contributed to the earthquake affected areas have been procured from internationally renowned resources, and drug donations were received as per WHO guidelines from identified partners.”

It said WHO followed a stringent guideline for its procurement, inventory and quality assurance system for sources of medicines. During the relief phase, donations were received directly by the government of Pakistan and a joint DHO-WHO warehouse was established which is currently under the DHOs’ administrative supervision with WHO providing logistics and technical support.

The drug with non-English subscription carrying the ingredient cephalexin originally donated to FRC and co-located with WHO warehousing didn’t have clear dosage guidelines and it was tested by Drug Testing Laboratory in Punjab revealing that the active ingredient was at a lower rate than the required limit.

The drug distribution was stopped and it was removed from the store on DHO’s instructions since May 17. The claim that the drugs might have caused the cases of gastroenteritis labelled as acute watery diarrhoea that were reported in many villages is completely erroneous, it added. These are water borne diseases which are being jointly addressed and responded to by health authorities, WHO and its partners.

“Similarly, WFP follows strict procedures of international commodity specifications ensuring the quality of food supplied to the earthquake affected areas. The agency checks through independent surveyors at various levels to verify the quality of food before it reaches the beneficiaries.

“Samples are sent for laboratory analysis at origin and checked twice thereafter at storage and distribution points. However, recently one of the transport contractors attempted to profit by substituting WFP wheat with substandard wheat while en route from Karachi. The matter was investigated, the commodity was rejected at destination and the transporter penalised as per WFP standard operating procedures.”

The United Nations Resident Coordinators Office confirms that all food and medicine supplies stored at WFP and WHO warehouses meet the entire international and local quality standard. All necessary reports are available with the agencies for further verification purposes.