Girl taking expired TB drugs succumbs

CUTTACK: Gudi Naik, whose condition had worsened after consuming expired TB medicine for more than three months, succumbed while undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital here on Sunday morning. She was admitted to the hospital on Saturday.

Though the authorities of SCBMCH are yet to clarify the cause of death, a senior doctor of Medicine Department said due to intake of expired medicine, the disease might have aggravated thereby creating complicacies which could have led to her death.

However, Chief District Medical Officer Dr Biswa Kalyan Patnaik said some expired TB medicines were recovered from the possession of the patient though medicines having validity were supplied to her. A probe is on to ascertain under which circumstances the patient had possessed the expired drugs.

Ruling out death due to intake of expired medicines, Dr Patnaik said the death of 20-year-old Gudi of Rajabagicha Sarbodaypur, who was a chronic TB patient and had taken medicine irregularly, might be due some other complications.

According to her family sources, Gudi was suffering from TB for the last two years and was undergoing treatment at the district headquarters hospital popularly called City Hospital.

The local Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker had given her medicines for four months which were supplied by City Hospital under Niramaya scheme.

Though covers of the medicines bore September as the expiry date, her illiterate parents could not know it and continued to give her the drugs for the last three months. As her condition deteriorated four days back, her parents took her to private physician who detected the expired medicines.