NDA Defends ARV Drugs Consumed by Animals, Says, Their Effects on Human Life is Minimized During Cooking.
Wednesday 6-Sep-2023, 3pm.
The National Drug Authority has informed Parliament’s HIV Committee that although they had known about farmers feeding & treating their animals with ARVs, the matter wasn’t made public for fear of raising alarm & impacting Uganda’s economic earning from animal exports abroad.
"We have known about them (ARVs use in animals), we are trying to do something about it, but there are some concerns that if we blow it out of proportion, what does it mean for the economy if you are going to export food. So it is in that context that you find that whereas we have known about that issue for some time, we are taking some measures without necessarily having to alarm the whole country," Amos Atumanya, Senior Inspector of Drugs-National Drug Authority.
Jenifer Alanyo (UPDF Rep) castigated NDA for concealing such information from the public & also rejected arguments fronted by NDA that when some drugs are consumed by animals, their effects on human life is minimized during the cooking, saying experts from Makerere University revealed that the heating of drugs increases their toxicity.
“You earlier on said that NDA knew about the presence of ARVs in chicken and pigs in 2013/2014 and when you knew about this, you clearly said you didn’t want to alarm the country, did you think at any one point that this would come out and did you think about the community and citizens of this country in regard to the effects of this drug?” Alanyo.
Source: Parliament Watch.
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