Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
CHARITY organisation, Food for the Poor, will be assisting persons in need of medication following reports that local distributors/pharmacies had run out of common drugs used to fight the current outbreak of acute conjunctivitis (pink-eye).
Bradley Finzi-Smith, Food for the Poor's (FFP) executive director, said the organisation had procured more than 6,000 bottles of eyedrops through its contacts overseas and these, worth about $400,000, will be airlifted to Jamaica early next week.
He said many poor people were not reporting pink eye infections to the doctor or were using home treatments such as salt water.
The eyedrops are expected to be turned over to the Ministry of Health and later to hospitals and clinics where people in need can access them.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health announced that local pharmacies and other distributors had run out of common drugs, including eyedrops, used in the treatment of pink eye. Pink eye is a highly contagious eye infection, which has affected hundreds, perhaps thousands of people over the last two months.
Eyedrops are used to prevent the complications of viral conjunctivitis. Health officials said Wednesday that the number of new cases of viral conjunctivitis was still at epidemic levels but that there was a 40 per cent decline in the number of cases since the outbreak peaked during the week ending August 16 this year.
Health officials also cautioned that many cases go unreported by persons who opt not to visit physicians.
The drug drought has also affected Health Corporation Limited, which purchases and supplies medication to the public health sector.
In the meantime, doctors and other individuals are being asked to use alternative treatments such as dabbing the eyes with salt water, using cool compresses or using different drugs. Prevention is also being stressed. Persons should wash hands and avoid contact with infected people and putting hands to the eyes.
