By Prisca Lumingu-Banda

Chowa Clinic in Central Province is allegedly dispensing expired antiretroviral-ARV drugs to patients.

Some patients are being given expired Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Lamivudine Efavirenz (AVONZA) Tablets which expired in October 2020.

According to information gathered by Millennium radio, as at January 2021 patients were still receiving the AVONZA tablets bearing serial numbers which expired last year.

And a patient whose names have been withheld who receives medication at Chowa Health Centre disclosed that the expired drugs were dispensed on 22nd January 2021.

The patients complained that they have been experiencing prolonged diarrhoea as a result of taking expired ARV drugs.

The patients charged that despite the drugs being expired, they are supposed to take them for six months.

Meanwhile an effort to get a comment from the Ministry of health failed by broadcast time as no one was available to give a comment on the matter.