This is the closest thing to high quality investigative journalism I've ever seen come out of Myanmar. Well done.
Did TTH really issue the order?
Jamie
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Health ministry backed police’s pre-Thingyan drug campaign
Shwe Yee Saw Myint
Myanmar Times
Thursday, 30 April 2015
The Ministry of Health coordinated with the Ministry of Home Affairs on a campaign in the lead-up to Thingyan that resulted in contraception being pulled from pharmacy shelves, The Myanmar Times has learned, despite having signed a commitment with the United Nations to expand contraception use.
One prominent international NGO working in the sector, Population Services International, said it was gathering information on the crackdown to support a formal complaint to the Ministry of Health over the project.
Officials involved have conceded that the project was not properly implemented, with police on the ground failing to follow the order correctly.
The crackdown is still being felt in the pharmaceutical market, with some distributors not sending out new stocks of contraceptive products to pharmacies for fear of arrest, despite the government’s “special project” have already ended.
Retailers have reported a lack of stock and even-lower-than-normal sales of emergency contraception, while birth control pills and erectile dysfunction medication remain sharply down.
The project, aimed at reducing sexual crime during Thingyan, resulted in registered contraceptive pills – and even condoms – being pulled from shelves. Owners of some pharmacies were arrested, while others were forced to sign pledges not to sell the products before and during Thingyan.
Health professionals said the campaign was highly misguided, and could result in unwanted pregnancies and even women undergoing risky illegal abortions.
Dr Theingi Myint, deputy director of the Department of Maternal and Child Health, confirmed that the Ministry of Health had cooperated with the Ministry of Home Affairs on the project.
“The order came from the deputy minister, Dr Thein Thein Htay,” she said.
She added, however, that the police had gone far further than planned.
The project was supposed to be limited only to erectile dysfunction medicines. “This was the police force’s mistake.”
In 2013, Dr Thein Thein Htay signed an agreement on behalf of the Ministry of Health with the United Nations Population Fund to increase the increase use of modern contraception among women of child-bearing age to 50 percent by this year and 60pc by 2020.
UNFPA did not respond to requests for comment on the special project or the ministry’s role.
But Dr Theingi Zin, director for drug control at the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for registering pharmaceuticals, said the campaign had been aimed just at products containing sildenafil and tadalafil, which are used to treat erectile dysfunction.
However, the order was never made public, and Yangon police instead announced on March 30 that they would arrest owners of pharmacies or other shops found to be selling emergency contraceptives and birth control pills, as well as erectile dysfunction medicine.
A spokesperson for a pharmaceutical company that distributes erectile dysfunction medicines said it had received no notification from the FDA about the project.
“Our products are registered with the FDA and we pay our taxes to the government but we have no information from them that they banned us from selling our products during Thingyan. We weren’t told anything about the special project and only found out when our customers told us,” the spokesperson said.
Ko Nay Lin Oo, the owner of a pharmany in North Okkalapa township, said many shops were being conservative about which products they sold.
He added that prices had increased for emergency contraception, erectile dysfunction medication and birth control pills, and there were few buyers.
“We are only selling some birth control pills that the police did not take action against,” he said.
International organisations working in the sector told The Myanmar Times they were unhappy with the project, but were worried about the potential repercussions if they criticised the Ministry of Health.
However, PSI Myanmar marketing director Dr Han Win Htat said yesterday his organisation planned to submit a complaint to the ministry once it confirmed the police force’s actions.
Despite selling registered contraceptive pills, it had similarly been left in the dark about the “special project” and only learned of it through the media.
“We are now investigating and collecting information on how many shops stopped selling [contraception] and where police arrested people for selling our product,” he said.
“We also heard that police cracked down on selling contraceptive pills distributed by other NGOs. If police really did force shops to stop selling our products at legal pharmacies we are going to complain to the Ministry of Health.”
Police Captain Khin Maung Lwin from Dala township said police were following orders from the Ministry of Health.
“They ordered us to crack down on all sex-related medicine, particularly non-registered products,” he said.
He conceded that officers may have been a little overzealous, but added that they were not trained to know which medicines were legal and which were not.
“When we go to pharmacy shops normally we have to go to these shop with health experts but sometime they cannot join with us so some police take all sex medicines because they cannot decide which are legal and which are not,” he said.
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/14198-health-ministry-backed-police-s-pre-thingyan-drug-campaign.html
