The effectiveness of medicine is usually dependent on how well it is stored. Just as Improper storage of food can lead to food poison or contamination . Similarly, when medicines are not properly stored can cause problems to the human body.
While people turn a blind eye on the storage information written on the prescription, others do not see the need to give credence to medicine storage directives. This however has the tendency of affecting people in diverse way. Speaking to a pharmacist Mr Mark Korankye of the GCB clinic, he hinted on the need for patients and Ghanaians to read and follow directives written on medicines.
“Medicines are suppose to be stored .It comes in various reasons or dimensions. Before the medicine gets to the home to be stored,it comes in bulk quantities.From the national level to the regional,district and facility level. It goes through a whole lot of processes before it gets to the homes. Therefore there is the need to store medicines”.
The pharmacist however believes that many are oblivion of the proper way of storing medicine. As such the need to know what it means to store medicines . “Medicines are chemicals. It needs to be in a state where it can still be effective. So by effectiveness every chemical has a particular temperature, a particular environment that it needs to be in before it can work. ”
“There are some medicines that need not to be exposed to the sun. We in general,term it photosensitive(light sensitive ). Exposure to light rays can make it react and turn into another thing. So the need to have the medicine placed in a very good environment. Humidity is also a concern. Moisture contains water , it can react with the chemical and change it as well”.
A lot a time people especially children gets sick as a result of exposure to medicines due to improper storage by parents. Hence he emphasised the need to keep medicines from the reach of children. “Some of the chemicals when they decompose can change from the manufactured state into another form and therefore taking it can be harmful to the body “he said.
Abdul Hussein in his research in 300 household on the proper way of medication storage, identified 94% of the people store their medicines at home and each household at least has about 14 different product and out of this 31% of this medication are prescribed medication and about 45% were left over medication. Left over medication meaning ,either they(users) didn’t complete taking it or bought more than they needed .32% were for future use .
Mr Korankye concluded by saying, “the failure of people to store medicines after opening it is ignorance” and called on colleague pharmacist to educate patients on the proper storage of medications.