By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
Despite the 2022 Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) outbreak that killed over 70 Gambian children, which was believed to be a result of contaminated syrups from India, the Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, has told the National Assembly that the country still imports drugs from India, but unlike before, the ministry has contracted a firm in India to check and confirm medicines before importing to the Gambia for usage.
The minister informed the lawmakers that since the AKI outbreak in the country, the Ministry of Health, through the Medical Control Agency (MCA), took various steps to extensively scrutinize medicines in India before shipping them to the country.
“Since the onset of the AKI in this country, various steps have been taken. The importation of drugs from India has been scrutinized and there has been, importantly, a robust pre-shipping regime now to ensure that these drugs are checked even before they leave the shores [of India]. A firm has been contracted by the Medicine Control Agency to do that pre-shipment,” he said.
Dr. Samateh noted that the Medical Control Agency in The Gambia is a small agency that is struggling with the capacity to do all that it wants to do about inspections of drugs before importing them into the country. According to him, The Gambia lacks pharmacists.
He, however, said that his ministry is endeavouring to build the capacity of its staff.
He assured the lawmakers that the contracted firm would check drugs meant to be sent into the country and make sure that they are from registered pharmacy companies in India.
Recently, over 50 pharmaceutical companies in India have failed the test for the production of syrups.
