By DANN OKOTH
A cold wave of panic ran through John Amituâs spine when the doctor informed him that the Anti-retroviral ( ARVs) medication he was under were expired and could harm his health if he continued to take them.
Horrified and scared for his life, Amitu promptly returned the medicine to MÃdecins Sans FrontiÃresâ (MSF) clinic in Huruma in Nairobi. Although he did not suffer physical harm from consuming the medicine â the experience left him worried about the safety of the drugs he had been taking all along.
In recent times, people living with HIV/Aids have had to fight many injustices including protesting over frequent breakdown of CD4 machines. [PHOTOS: COURTESY]
"I remember it was only a few months after I started my medication following my diagnosis â which was a coincidence, really, because it happened when I took my wife for a routine check-up and she suggested we take a HIV test.
"It was a bit of a bombshell when the test returned positive for both of us, but again it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I would be worse off health-wise by now if I did not know my status. The message from the doctor was therefore a shock and setback in my treatment."
Feared for his life
Adds he: "What bothered me most is the impact on my health. I was also worried that if this could happen now, what about in the future when I am out of the programme and have to obtain the medicines on my own?" he observes.
He feared for his life, he says, especially after hearing that the HIV medicines had serious side effects â and were said to be even poisonous. He kept wondering what would happen to him since he had consumed the âdangerousâ expired drugs.
MSFâs missions in Kenya detected quality problems with the medicines used to treat people with HIV and Aid-related diseases after its nurses reported that the product was irregular in appearance; the tablets were friable and discoloured.
The medicine (Zidolam-N) were actually expired medicines that had been deliberately re-labelled to alter the expiry data and re-introduced into the medication supply by an individual or individuals.
Negative outcomes
