TANZANIA Medicines
and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA) said it has deployed intensive
surveillance to tackle smuggled substandard medical products through...
informal ports along Lake Victoria shores.
According to TMDA's
Lake Zone Manager, Sophia Mziray, the authority has beefed up efforts
to sweep out substandard medicines and medical devices from the local
market and protect public health.
Ms Mziray said the
authority has assigned enough officials at formal ports along the Lake,
but controlling imports via informal ports has been a big challenge.
"We have,
therefore, put more efforts on market surveillance in collaboration with
residents who tip us over the presence of suspected poor products. We
are glad to announce that fake products have largely disappeared across
Lake Zone regions," she said.
Ms Mziray was
briefing information officers from institutions under the ministry of
health, community development, gender, elderly and children who were
accompanied with journalists in a visit to the TMDA's Lake Zone office.
The officers and journalists were in a media campaign dubbed; 'Tumeboresha Sekta ya Afya'.
East African countries share Lake Victoria as a means of transport and for economic activities mainly fishing.
Several cargos that are destined to any of these countries are shipped through this Lake, thus facilitating trade in the region.
However, unscrupulous traders are said to use informal ports to import poor products in the local market.
The ministry has
come up with the campaign in order to provide media platforms to explain
about improvements which have positively affected health services
provision in the country during four years of President John Magufuli.
"During the past
four years, we have seen significant decrease of products that don't
meet standards," she stated, noting that in 2017/18 the authority
identified and destroyed 1,067 tonnes of substandard products in the
market while in 2018/19 the number went down to 53.75 tonnes.
She said the
decrease proved that control measures have been strengthened and traders
were complying with the laws and regulations.
On other hand, in
the past four years, over 1100 samples of medicines went through
laboratory tests in the Lake Zone, and results showed that 96 per cent
of them met quality standards.
"This indicates that the market in the Lake Zone is safe from substandard medicines and medical devices," she assured.
The TMDA has
further spread awareness to the public over how to get rid of consuming
substandard medicines. The authority has reached out to over 167,200
members of the public in awareness campaigns.
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