[e-drug] Lord save us from Al Qaida and drug donations

[Hilbrand Haak <haakh@compuserve.com>]

E-drug: Lord save us from Al Qaida and drug donations
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[I received the correspondence below because I participated in the
WHO/EDM technical briefing conference in Geneva 2 weeks ago. I
thought to share it with you, as it so vividly demonstrates the
problem created by inappropriate drug donations. One participant
presented on inappropriate drug donations during the conference,
and another one is now confronted with donations that are pouring
in after the Al Qaida attack in Bali. No disaster seems to be safe
from being abused by drug donators. HH]

Dear Iris,

I really appreciated your presentation on how to make drug
donations more appropriate. Unfortunately, I seem to have become
the first person from our group in Geneva, who is facing this
problem immediately!! I think everybody is well informed about the
bomb blast in Bali last Saturday evening. In the Teaching Hospital in
Surabaya we are also taking care of the victims, as our hospital is
the referral centre for the Eastern part of Indonesia, including Bali.
The hospitals in Bali do not have sufficient capacity to handle this
sort of disasters. We are working hand-in-hand with medical teams
from Australia, Japan, and Korea. Donations have started to pour in
from everywhere, including transfusion blood, medical equipments,
blankets, food, etc. And of course, many drugs!! To tell you the
truth, it is really hard to think about the appropriateness of the
donations at this moment. Right now, we only think of how to help
all people as soon as possible.

Once the situation has calmed down I will tell you what is
happening with the donated drugs. The head of the Pharmacy
Department of the teaching hospital in Bali has a direct line with us.
He may be able to report on these things afterwards.

Please keep in touch,

Erni Kolopaking
Dr Soetomo Teaching Hospital
Surabaya, Indonesia
e-mail: erni@indo.net.id

===============================
At 12:18 PM 10/10/02 +0200, Iris Stehmann wrote:
Dear All,

During my presentation on drug donations it once again became
clear that inappropriate donations continue to happen frequently,
even though there are clear Interagency Guidelines. Sometimes it is
politically impossible to say no, other times it is not clear who the
donor is, and there may be many other reasons. As explained
during my presentation, this is why we want to establish a
monitoring system, so that we know what is happening. I would
like to invite you to come forward with suggestions, especially with
your experience 'from the field'. Also, during the presentation it
became clear that there were many examples of poor donations. If
you have more of these, please let me know. Don't forget to check
out our website www.drugdonations.org (7 languages). You can
add your name to the list of supporters! If you have any questions,
feel free to contact me.

Kind regards,

Iris Stehmann
Wemos Project Officer Drug Donations
e-mail: iris.stehmann@wemos.nl

Wemos Foundation, P.O. Box 1693, 1000 BR Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
tel +31-20-4.688.388 / fax +31-20-4.686.008 / web site
http://www.wemos.nl

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