Editorials

EDITORIAL: Eradicate illegal drug

drugs

The pill is easy to buy online and from ‘herbal clinics’. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board is yet again in the spotlight over the Chinese-made fertility pill that it had banned from the Kenyan market 10 years ago but which has now made a comeback through the back door.

The once-a-month pill popularly known as Sofia is being sold openly in herbal clinics, begging the question of the country’s drug surveillance network and raising important health and safety questions that ought to be urgently addressed.

The pill is easy to buy online and from ‘herbal clinics’ and also from unscrupulous dealers who deliver purchases on order across the country.

The question is why they are being allowed to do this, putting lives and health of Kenyans at risk.

The board ought to move with speed and crack down on the illicit trade given the risk that the drug poses to women and children of breastfeeding mothers.

For a country with a wanting public health infrastructure, the proliferation of such risky drugs exposes the country to a public health crisis.

The best bet to curb the menace remains upping surveillance and public education on the dangers of the pill.