adminIn an interview yesterday, Matabeleland South provincial medical director Dr William Busumani said the matter was under investigation.
“We are investigating the issue because we need to get our facts right,” he said.
Twenty patients who collected ARVs at the hospital pharmacy were given the “wrong” medication because of a mix up.
Between 8am and 12pm on Friday, some patients were mistakenly given a three in one drug instead of a two in one drug and consumption of the “wrong” drug causes an overdose.
On realising the error, some hospital officials started relaying the message to people in a bid to contact the recipients so that they could return all the drugs collected during that period.
Some patients who collected the drugs came from rural Gwanda, some kilometres away from the hospital.
Meanwhile, some of the affected patients have reportedly started returning the drugs to the hospital pharmacy while others were yet to be traced.
However, Dr Busumani could neither confirm nor deny that patients had started returning the drugs.
ARVs are taken by HIV positive people to boost their immune system but if consumed in excess the drugs are said to cause hepatitis B, liver and kidney failure among other health problems.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo