Recruit pharmacists in swine flu drug outlets

BPS General Secretary Selim Al Azad Chowdhury addresses a press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium in the city yesterday.Photo: STAR

Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society (BPS) yesterday demanded the government recruit graduate pharmacists in pharmacies where the drug would be sold to ensure rational use of the antiviral drug of swine flu.
Those pharmacists could prescribe the patients and would keep record whether the patients are using it rationally and completing the course, they added.
The speakers said this at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium in the city, adding that irrational use of drug would create resistance among the virus. The government should keep an eye on it.
They also demanded the government waiver import duty and value added tax (VAT) from the imported raw material of Oseltamivir to reach the drug to the people at low cost.
BPS General Secretary Selim Al Azad Chowdhury said currently the drug is being sold at Tk 180 per capsule. But soon it would come down to Tk 150. But still the price is higher for most of the people and the government should consider it.
“If the price of raw material could be reduced, the price of the drug would be reduced to 25 percent to 30 percent,” he said.
The speakers said people need not get panicked about it as since September 6 this year, some 105 patients among 3987 swine flu cases were died in India while the deaths are 72 among 7000 in Malaysia, eight among 1055 in Indonesia and seven among 7544 in Japan.
In Bangladesh, three people have so far been died of swine flu, they said suggesting that what people need is just to maintain personal hygiene, covering mouth and nose while they are sneezing and coughing and seeking treatment if flu-like illness is felt.
They also urged the owners of private hospitals to provide treatment at reduced or free of cost.
However, currently the entire district-level hospitals and some 15 medical colleges and hospitals and eight private hospitals have been providing treatment of swine flu.
ICDDR,B has also started to treat the patients with swine flu strains along with its research activities.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), most patients infected with the pandemic virus continue to experience typical influenza symptoms and fully recover within a week, even without any form of medical treatment. Healthy patients with uncomplicated illness need not be treated with antivirals.
Dr Abu Shara Shamsur Rouf of the department of Pharmaceutical Technology of Dhaka University, Dr Shitesh Chandra Basar, Assistant Prof AK Lutful Kabir and Joyonto Kumer Dev also spoke.