He added that Medexes work under the Medex Law and Medex Act of Guyana and registered Medexes “are only registered to work in the public sector”. He was speaking at the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Board meeting in Region 5 recently.
He also warned that it is illegal for Medexes to go and work in their private shops and clinics, “and the Ministry of Health through the Chief Medical Officer can give permission to certain State and parastatal agencies and even the private sector”. Medexes who work in the private medical facilities, he added, must work under the supervision of a doctor.
The Medex, according to the law, is a state position “and we give permission currently to GuySuCo and several other agencies to employ medexes, so the law is very clear”.
Cytotec is not an over-the-counter-drug “so anyone found using cytotec or if they bought it from a pharmacy, the person is liable for a conviction, but also those who sold that medication could be placed before the court”.
The fine, he said, is “nothing to talk about and they could be found guilty of an offence”. The fine, he added, which is just a couple hundred of dollars is being revised. Cytotec, used to prevent stomach ulcers, has been widely abused by women who want to induce an abortion.
“We should warn persons not to be buying a prescription medicine which includes antibiotics and medications that goes to treat high blood pressure”. The Chief Medical Officer has warned against the indiscriminate use of certain medications that are being sold over-the-counter. These medications, such as antibiotics among others, “can harm the person using them but also cause a lot of unwanted, further illness all the time”. He made specific mention of the popular “black- and- red” capsules that are being regularly purchased by persons. “You know how much problems you are causing?
Not only with your health that it can damage something or cause a problem in you, but you are now encouraging what is called the development of resistance, which has got this world in the trouble we are in right now, where the germ in your body now— because you are giving this pill at a less-than-required dose, those germs now get to know that drug and multiply rapidly and when we’re ready to use ‘black and red’—that’s why we don’t even use it anymore— it’s useless to be honest— it’s a really good drug, but it really cannot be used because when we are ready to use it, we have to use it in heavy, heavy doses before you get the results and then many times, you have to go to another level of drug”.
He said that people have abused it so much, so there’s lots of resistance and it does not work.
Persaud is very concerned about many prescription drugs that are being used indiscriminately and said both the purchasers and sellers are liable to charges and can be prosecuted. Cytotec, he said, has its role in pregnancy and delivery— it can be used to help to facilitate a normal delivery— it does not cause the death of the foetus, what it causes is the expulsion of that and… the larger the pregnancy, the more effective it works, so the drug was developed to encourage a normal delivery”.
Numerous drugs that people are using for different purposes today, such as Viagra, were designed to treat other ailments and conditions. “Viagra was developed to treat hypertension and now it’s used for another purpose— there are many, many drugs that we identified the side effects and the side effects become a good side effect, a useful thing and we develop the drug to do that job, so we must be careful”.
