Chandigarh : As per the directions of Haryana Health and Family Welfare Minister Anil Vij, a campaign has been launched by officials of the Department of Drug and Administration regarding chemists turning off the main switch while closing their shops at night due to which the refrigerators containing medicines also get turned off.
Vij said with this practice, medicines requiring cold temperature like anti-rabies vaccine, insulin, tetanus etc gets adversely affected.
He said if such medicines were kept at a temperature higher than the prescribed freezing temperature for 72 hours, they would lose their potency.
Vij said he had been continuously receiving complaints in this regard and more than 50 shops across the state had been raided. He said under this campaign, checking had been done at 12 shops in Faridabad, five in Jhajjar, 11 in Gurugram, 10 in Karnal, 10 in Kurukshetra, one in Sonepat, one in Panipat and 11 in Ambala.
Out of these, refrigerators were found turned off at two shops in Faridabad – Bharat Medical Store MCF-184, Main Market, Mujesar, Faridabad and Shree Balaji Medical Store, shop No. 752, Main Market, Sector 24, Faridabad. Both these shops were sealed on the spot.
Apart from this, Anish Medical Store, Ashok Vihar, Main Palam Vihar Road, Gurugram, was sealed. Similarly, a refrigerator was found switched off at a shop in Sonepat, which was also sealed.
Vij warned the chemists that they should store cold temperature medicines in refrigerators properly and the wholesalers should also distribute such medicines to the retailers as per the rules, otherwise they would be punished for violation and stringent action would also be taken against the defaulters.
“Medicines requiring cold temperature like anti-rabies vaccine, insulin, tetanus etc get adversely affected if these are kept at temperature higher than the prescribed one, making these lose their potency. More than 50 shops across the state have been sealed.” — Anil Vij, Health and Family Welfare Minister
