There’s a lot to be thankful for if you are living in the current modern age. Life expectancy is much higher, there’s uber, smartphones, lots of freedoms and slavery is no longer a thing. Living that hunting and gathering life meant quality of life wasn’t that good because you had to do everything yourself. Even the things that you were not particularly good at. With the advent of money and capitalism, we could now leave the things we are not good at to those who were actually good at them. Maybe not having to worry about greens and concentrating on hunting made the hunters figure out domestication. Maybe not having to worry about hunting and it’s dangers made gatherers figure out farming and crop storage.
Specialization is such a commonplace thing nowadays that we could venture to say that no single person knows how to make a pencil. The guy who makes the eraser is different from the guy who makes the lead. And maybe the lumberjack and the guy who makes the ferrule don’t concern themselves with the intricacies of putting together a pencil. The advantage is that although no one can make everything from start to finish, we still get a damn good pencil because everyone can do what they are good at. Depending on each other becomes a point of strength.
The drugs world sort of operates in a similar fashion. Some countries like India, China,Canada and Germany have good structures in place for making drugs en masse. They have invested in such industries and they produce quality drugs that actually work. Drugs that meet the stringent body requirements for hygiene and safety. That’s right. The hardest authority to please when making a drug is not the FDA or PPB. It is actually our own bodies. They are very picky. To swallow a pill and have little side effects and a lot of benefits is a miracle. We should celebrate that. Go drink a gulp of water to celebrate. We celebrate in healthy ways here.
Anyway, to replicate such a feat from scratch would require a lot of resources and expertise. And even if we had all the money in the world(which we don’t), it would still take years of trial and error to make something that the body won’t instantly reject with prejudice. It took the current players in that market years to get to where they are. We shouldn’t expect anything different. And while we try to get to where they are, they will also be improving what they already have. It would be better to focus on what we are good at already and trade that with what they are good at.
Of course we set up a few industries of our own, because we still need to account for uncertainties on planet earth. Some drugs are just so crucial to sustaining life that shortages and outages are death sentences. We can talk of insulin, the IV fluids, Furosemide, Tramadol and the like. Don’t worry if all those sound foreign to you. If you have ever been in or brought someone to an emergency department in a hospital then you know those drugs and they know you. You just haven’t been formally introduced yet. Specialization allows us to leave such formalities to the doctors. Believe me, you will want to skip such formalities. Med school is a place where the intelligent go to mock their intelligence.
One often overlooked class of drugs in this class of very essential drugs is the class of ARVs. We know those three letters. We know what they mean. Sometimes not in the best of light. We can blame stigma for that. ARVs are actually lifesaving drugs. HIV is a stubborn little virus that no matter how it came in, it never really leaves. Even annoying relatives eventually move on but this one, well this one stays as if you took vows. And you know, it really breaks the heart to see young children in the HIV clinic, running around and playing… not even aware of where they are or what they are doing there. It’s a taxing disease on its own. We could learn to spare people the stigma.
Only ARVs are capable of keeping HIV on a leash. And thanks to modern technology they do a fairly good job. ARVs allow people to continue with their lives normally. They can eat, work, play, take care of their own and improve society. It would be a cruel and unlivable society that meted out destruction in case someone slipped up or made a mistake. We like yearning for forgiveness when we make a mistake. Especially when it was not deliberate. We should extend that courtesy to others.
As we can see, ARVs are pretty good at what they do. Nowadays the picture of the stereotypical HIV patient is all but gone. But the monster that they are tasked with keeping at bay is also a master at monster things. That’s why ARVs always have to be in the body. To do that people take a pill daily, although innovation might change that soon. If HIV hears a rumor that ARVs are absent with apologies then all hell breaks loose. The images of stage IV HIV that you saw in textbooks in primary school become reality rapidly. People waste away to bones in a span of months and I don’t know man. I have seen such a person. It is a gut-wrenching sight. And we haven’t even talked about the kids who also rely on these drugs to live. I don’t want to go there. It’s sad.
ARVs are therefore drugs that should not share a sentence with the word shortage. Not at all. Our best option is still to import the drugs, for reasons which I started this article with. When I was working at the HIV clinic some years back (can’t believe it’s been years already) news of shortages would pop up every now and then. And I can confirm to you that 90% of the people in the clinic didn’t go out to look for the damn virus. Victims of abuse, infidelity and innocent children abounded. Pointing fingers doesn’t work even though we do it so much.
The point of all this is that the ARV supply chain is composed of many people. A good number of them have no idea how important and necessary the commodity that they are handling is. A few are still blinded by old fables and misconceptions. That should not give anyone an excuse to slack on their job for whatever reason. When someone depends on your actions to see tomorrow then that realization should weigh heavily on your heart and guide your work ethic.
From the driver delivering the drugs to the official signing the contract for supply, everyone is important. Everyone needs to work with integrity and a pure heart, knowing that one slip up and the lives of people will be enquired of them by God. And just like Cain, no excuse will be sufficient to convince God and us why you toyed with the lives of people. And you thought that only surgeons did that. Ha. So let us give no room to dangerous games that almost always have an end goal of massaging someone’s ego or pockets. The disruption to the supply chain could cost people their lives. That’s called murder.
By Dr. Dennis Were.
Pharmacist and Chief Editor,
Planet Wizard Africa.