WORLD : Alert Issued on Quake Aid Drugs
Some of the drugs sent to Soviet Armenia for victims of the 1988 earthquake were useless or even dangerous, experts said today, and they warned of similar problems with emergency supplies now being sent to Iran.
The Armenian shipments included pharmaceuticals that came from stocks of expired drugs, and others of a type no longer sold, according to an article in the respected British medical journal, The Lancet.
“The quantities of expired and useless drugs are especially worrying,” it said. “The supply of massive amounts of drugs for the purpose of humanitarian aid still represents a good way of disposing of stocks of expired drugs or of those that are normally no longer marketable.”
“We know exactly the same problems are happening now in Iran,” said Dr. Philippe Autier of the European Assn. for Health and Development.
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