Kachasu, pork sales worth more than human life

A friend brought to my attention an article about ARV being used for brewing kachasu and making animal feed which was published in last week’s Weekend Nation. The skeptic in me refused to believe the investigative story but if indeed people were arrested for selling ARVs then this is a really serious issue that the government needs to address.

And even more importantly, the story questions the moribund society that we live in.

Stories of people using life prolonging ARVs for livestock and local brews are not new. A story was published in 2008 about Zambian farmers who were doing the same thing. Similar stories have been published in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The development raises a whole lot of questions in my mind; the scientist in me wonders who would ever come up with the idea of giving chickens ARVs, does it actually work, how do they give it the chickens?

The ethicist in me says what idiot in the government/hospital would sell drugs when there are so many people that so desperately need these life saving drugs?

What greedy and selfish fool would even consider giving their animals ARVs knowing that there are people that desperately need ARVs, and that they could possibly be putting the lives of people who consume their tainted chicken and kachasu at risk?

So many questions and no answers.

It makes very angry, sad, disappointed if this is the society that we live in, where money means more than a person’s life. People are up in arms about Cashgate…the people in this ARV scam are just as villainous as the cashgate criminals.

It was only a few months ago that an article published in The Nation reported that the Ministry of Health was probing drug stock outs.

It was also only recently that another article stated that Malawi has qualified for interim funding from the Global Fund of ” $114 million (about K46 billion) to finance procurement of vital drugs such as ARVs and other related activities.”

Now, stock outs of ARVs that result from corruption would seriously jeopardise access to these much needed funds.

Anyone who steals, sells or uses ARVs to make a quick buck is a murderer. Yes I said it, a murderer. It is unconscionable, cowardly, cruel and selfish because they are implicitly negatively affecting someone’s life.