The town of Zalingei in Central Darfur State is experiencing a concerning surge in the informal trade of medicines, occurring outside of pharmacies and in violation of legal regulations governing the drug market.
Tables stacked with various medicines are being prominently displayed in market alleys and in front of shops, with little oversight or clear regulatory supervision.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Sunday, Pharmacist Maysar Hassan emphasized the importance of specific storage conditions and temperatures for medicines. Maysar urged those involved in the drug trade to reflect on the potential dangers these unregulated medicines pose to people.
She emphasized the need to avoid exploiting current conditions to sidestep established controls and principles for dealing with medications.
Maysar appealed to citizens to consult with doctors and seek medical advice before randomly taking medications.
Dr. Ahmed Zakaria, a medical doctor in Zalingei, attributed the surge in medicine misuse to citizens trespassing on stores and looting drugs during city combat confrontations. He criticized citizens for acquiring medications from unreliable sources without prescriptions, emphasizing the need for clear medical guidance on treatment type, permissible doses, and other essential directions.
According to Dr. Zakaria, the random sale of medicine has given rise to additional issues, notably an increase in the addiction phenomenon among young people.
“Selling medicine randomly has serious effects, including the possibility of the medicine expiring, or the effectiveness of the medicine ending due to poor storage, which threatens to have catastrophic repercussions of this phenomenon on the health of sick citizens who find it procedurally or financially easy to deal with this method of taking medicine,” he said.