CHARIKAR (SW) – Self-medication and unchecked drug sale in Parwan has been damaging public’s health, said locals.
The indiscriminate use of drugs has been going on among citizens for years, and a number of people use different types of drugs without any knowledge of it.
A number of residents of Charikar say that due to economic poverty and lack of awareness, many people take medicine without considering the side effects, which has caused an increase in kidney disease among many residents of this province. Zainuddin Parwani, a 31-year-old young man, said that he visited drugstores in many cases and obtained the medicines he needed without the prescription of a doctor.
Zainuddin, who has now lost one of his kidneys, said about the problems he is facing these days: “I felt pain in my right kidney, I went to the doctor, after the examinations he said that there was a stone in my kidney. My kidney stone became enlarged over time, they gave me some advice, not to lift a kilogram of weight, not to take a shower, not to eat spinach, not to eat dairy products in general. These are sources that are stone-forming. I should not eat red meat, I should drink boiled water, and I should use a lot of fluids.”
Tor Yalay, another resident of Parwan, said that last year he had one of his kidneys removed due to chronic kidney failure. He stated that the most important cause of contracting this disease was taking medicine without a doctor’s prescription. He added: “A stone was found in my kidney, I did examinations, they said that your kidneys are gone. I operated, they took out my kidney, I spent 50,000 afghanis, I got operated. They said not to eat beef, beans and these foods.”
On the other hand, Kebel, another local, has a different story to share. He cited the low level of citizens’ awareness and the arbitrary sale of medicines as the main reason for this disease. He said: “Various factors can cause a person to lose his kidney. All kinds of medicines are sold in Parwan. People use different medicines. When they use it, it destroys their kidney. There is usually lack of fluids in our bodies, people don’t drink much water, and there are dozens of other cases when a person loses his kidney.”
Ruhollah Rahimi, a general internal medicine specialist at Parwan’s 100-bed specialized hospital, told Salam Watandar that the incidences of kidney disease have increased since 2017. Mr. Rahimi added that women are more vulnerable. He says: “A number of people are suffering from economic problems and most of the patients are women. These are not clearly stated. When they suffer from menstrual diseases, these should be taken care of regularly; Because one of the reasons for kidney deficiency is poor blood supply. Whenever there is a change in the color of the urine, or whenever one feels more thirsty, one must go to his doctor.”
Javed Hajir, the spokesperson of the National Food and Drug Administration of Afghanistan, confirms the problems in the sale of arbitrary drugs in the markets, emphasizing that in the past years, drugs were also sold on the roads. Mr. Hajir, referring to the actions of this department to prevent the sale of substandard drugs, vowed measures are ensured to curb it.
“No one is allowed to prescribe medicine to anyone without a doctor’s prescription or to use it on their own. The list of non-prescription drugs in our country includes more than 28 items; Most of them are minerals, vitamins and some solutions of healt products. We have representatives in all provinces in the monitoring department of pharmaceutical facilities. All the drugs that come through the customs, our colleagues do sampling there. If they don’t have the desired result, they will be confiscated there and wasted.”
ENDS
