Karachi:

The blockade of highways due to the ongoing protest movement against the construction of new channels on the Indus River could have a devastating influence on the supply of medicine from Sindh to Punjab and other provinces, experts warned on Thursday.

Due to the blockade, the trucks, carrying different drugs, remained firm on traffic Snarl’s various locations on National Highway, Indus Highway and other roads to Punjab. However, experts said rising summer heat was the bigger problem here.

According to experts, medicine and pharmaceutical chemicals left in the sun or heat for a long period of time, it can pose a threat to public health because the high temperatures could compromise medical quality and in many cases made them completely ineffective.

“Excessive heat and humidity can damage the structure of the chemicals in medicine, making them less effective or ineffective,” Muhammad Wasil told Citizen Health Foundation (CHF) to Express Pakinomist.

In some cases, toxic by -products could also be formed, especially syrups and suspensions may become thicker. The intensity of heat can weaken the sealing and packaging of bottles, and as a consequence, air or moisture can be mixed with the medication, ”pointed out Wasil.

Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA) – which represent those associated with all aspects of the pharmaceutical trade – acknowledged that the supply of the medicine was facing obstacles due to the closure of highways in Sindh.

PCDA President Abdul Samad Memon told Express Pakinomist that the suppliers adopted alternative routes to transport the medicine in time. “Important medicines are sent by air as the logistics companies have stopped taking stocks for land delivery,” Memon said.

For the time being, Memon no threat of medicine deficiency in the country. “A stock that is sufficient for one and one and a half months is stored in each city, while most of the medicines that required the cool chain were sent by plane,” he maintained.

Memon and Wasil confirmed that the containers stuck at the border between Sindh-Punjab also include medicine and pharmaceutical chemicals. “If the closure of highways stretched further, it could create a lack of medicine,” Memon said.

Consumer bodies and experts pointed out that according to Pakistan (Drap) and the World Health Organization (WHO) standards (WHO) standards must be stored between 15 to 30 ° C.

They have advised the government to monitor the stock that is stuck in transit and confirm its effectiveness through laboratory surveys. They said that medicines that did not meet the standards had to be destroyed so that the possibility of loss of human life could be removed.