Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 7

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[url="http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=32151"]Makers of substandard cardio drugs held[/url]



LAHORE : Police have arrested the owners of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the drugs using which scores of cardiac patients in Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore died, Geo News reported.



Cases have been filed against the drug makers.



Sources said that medical experts had suspected five medicines — Solprin, Zafnol, Concont, Cardiovascin and Isotab — were provided to the cardiac patients registered with the PIC.



They said the patients taking the medicines were brought to hospitals with symptoms of a sudden drop in platelets and white blood cells and bleeding from different body parts. They said initially they took the symptoms as that of dengue.



More than 150 patients are reportedly under treatment in different city hospitals.



According to details collected from different city hospitals on Saturday, cardiac patients Khurshid Bibi, Ahmad Bashir, Gull Hussain, Ijaz, Nawaz, Aslam and Javed died in the Mayo Hospital while Ghulam Murtaza and Muhammad Amin breathed their last in the Services Hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Lahore.



Sources further said that the Punjab Health Department had ordered the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and supplying the affected medicines to withdraw all stocks from hospitals and the market. They said the department had also ordered health EDOs and medical superintendents to immediately stop use of medicines and seal stocks and instructed drug inspectors to withdraw medicines from the registered patients.



However, it was learnt that no cardiac patient died of drug reaction at the PIC because its OPD patients were admitted to public and private hospitals close to their localities.



Meanwhile, Punjab Health Secretary Jehanzeb Khan has constituted a high-powered probe committee.



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