Fake doctor operating illegal clinic for 12 years arrested in central Mozambique

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Fake doctor operating illegal clinic for 12 years arrested in central Mozambique

12:07 CAT | 25 Apr 2017

AP (File photo)

A fake doctor has been detained by police after prescribing antiretrovirals to a malaria patient in the Gondola district of Manica, central Mozambique, a police source told Lusa on Monday.

The man had been operating a clandestine clinic since 2005, which was also closed.

This was one of the most successful examples of police intervention in a region where antibiotics share space on open-air market stalls with insecticides and remedies against “love evils.”.

Police detained a further two employees who had been prescribing and administering drugs in a home-based clinic for 12 years in the Muda-Serração area of Gondola district despite having no pharmaceutical qualifications.

Officials seized large quantities of drug, some with 2015 expiry dates, Manica police spokeswoman Elsidia Filipe said.

“It was a real attack on the public [health],” she said, adding that the clinic offered all the usual hospital services, but without the minimum required conditions.

Police intervened after a father complained that his son, who he thought had malaria, was given HIV antiretrovirals for treatment.

“One of the clients went to the clinic on Friday to get malaria tablets and, when he got there, he was treated, but instead of getting malaria pills, he got antiretrovirals. The man was worried that his son was suffering from malaria and filed a complaint with the police,” the spokeswoman said.

The defendants had documentation dated 2005 that authorized the clinic to function, but police said the documents were “false” and that “the clinic had never been inspected”.

This is the largest police operation against prescription of fake medication since it declared war on the sale of drugs in informal markets in 2015 and began launching operations to bring down networks of illegal salespeople and clinicians, Filipe said.

Thousands of residents in the province of Manica buy medicines in informal markets, relying on services usually provided by young people without pharmaceutical qualifications who also provide clinical care. The market is fuelled by medicines diverted from public institutions, usually involving health professionals and pharmacies in Chimoio and other districts.

In markets in both Feira and 38 Milímetros, the busiest in Chimoio, capital of Manica, traditional African products to cure “love evils” fight for space with antibiotics like tetracicline, used for bacterial infections, and Coartem, a malaria drug. Even kanamycin, indicated for certain sexually transmitted infections, is still on sale, despite falling out of use globally.

The remedies are sold without any standards of transportation, handling or administration. They are often exposed to sun and rain and stored and displayed in close proximity to insecticides for cockroaches and mosquitoes and rat poison. Vendors often do not even have stalls, and sell the drugs from suitcases or even their pockets.

Source: Voa Portugues