CMO warns public about consuming expired medicines

Expired medications are sold on the Guyanese market and some consumers have opted to purchase and ingest these products, oblivious to the harmful aftereffects.
This is according to Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, who earlier this week sent out a stern warning that medicines devalue after manufacturing and the active ingredients might not be as effective. Some, he said, can even become poisonous if they are kept for long periods.
Persons were asked to beware of such products since quality is affected by a number of environmental factors.
“None of you [should] consume medications that would deem to have expired because, at that point, I can’t guarantee that you are consuming a medicine that has the active ingredient that is stated on that label. We know that with time, environmental conditions, moisture, temperature etc, those substances change. We know several medications that can become poisonous substances when they’re kept for [a] long period of time so beware of those,” Persaud related.
He expressed that the Public Health Ministry has sought to alert its departments and the Private Sector on expired drugs. Even if a medication expired just one day ago, it should not be consumed, he added, further stating that the expiration date of products should be clearly written in English as part of mandatory requirements.
“The Ministry has been alerting its agencies, including the Private Sector that we do not use expire drugs. There is no ‘it expired yesterday so you can go ahead and take those medications’. A lot of our products do come in bulk forms. We are encouraging that the expiry dates be written on the information that is given to the patients so the person knows [when] their supply of drugs expires,” the CMO said.
While there are many ways to indicate when merchandise will expire, the simple expiry date is applicable to medicines.
“The law specifically stipulates that food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices must be labelled in English language first of all and the labels must cover certain areas. The Food and Drug Act also stipulates the time of expiry date. There were some discussions about ‘best before’, as opposed to ‘consume by’ as opposed to ‘expiry date’. Expiry date seems to be more applicable to medications and pharmaceutical agents that would tend to, based on scientific evidence, deteriorate as a matter of fact.”
He stated that these regulations should also follow for food items. Foodstuff that is close to being expired can be eaten but not those that would have already expired. When the stipulated date has passed, it should be thrown away or destroyed and not sold to uninformed persons.
It was also conveyed that persons choose to buy expired products due to the marked down prices but this may carry additional health risks.
“In terms of food, it’s a bit more flexible. What we keep advising is that those items should be close to the date, not past it. Any past date should be removed from the shelf and destroyed, not resold to our poorer population or less-educated persons and put them at additional health risk,” said the Chief Medical Officer.