Somali gov't to establish national health standards institution

BusinessGhana
Thursday, February 02, 2012

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Somalia's Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced its plan to create the national health standards agency "to raise the standard of health and medicine in the country," a statement said.

The local health infrastructures in Somalia have been destroyed by more than two decades of civil war in the horn of Africa nation, making control of health standards non-existent.

The ministry said it intends to enforce all the existing health and safety regulations and issuing new ones as required.

"There is an acute problem of sub-standard or out-of-date medicine being sold to our citizens, who are unaware of the danger to their health and life that this dangerous medicine can cause," Minister of Health and Human Services Abdiaziz Sheikh Yusuf said in the statement.

"We are determined that this should no longer continue and are in the process of taking all the necessary steps to put an end to it in the shortest possible time," the minister added.

The Somali Health Ministry said the main task of the National Health Standards Institution will be to "ensure the quality control of all the medicine imported into the country."

Somalia has been without a strong central government for the past 20 years during which the standards of health services and drugs remained unchecked.

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