On Medicine Output

PROVEN allopathic medicines, because of their reliability based on extensive researches, have gained both praise and popularity among the general people and medical practitioners. The other reason for the excessive dependence on allopathic medicine stems from the fact that the herbal medicine produced in the country is insufficient to meet the demands. The challenges of the present day diseases, to a great extent, can be faced through the use of scientific medicine. Needless to say, thousands of patients and hundreds of doctors these days prefer to use or refer justified allopathic drugs to ayurvedic medicines. Thus, the demand for allopathic medicines is increasing every day and such medicines worth billions of rupees are imported into Nepal every year. Hundreds of hospitals and working medical practitioners here feel confident when prescribing such drugs because of their quality and reliability which are guaranteed by the respective manufacturers and drug control department of the country. However, it is a bitter fact to mention that heavy dependence on allopathic drugs by the Nepalese is causing a great financial strain on the nation. The drugs produced in the country by few manufacturers like Royal Drugs Limited and some private pharmaceutical companies is inadequate as per demands. Meanwhile, the sick people are multiplying their numbers due to ignorance, lack of knowledge regarding their food habits and the unhygienic places they live in. While the rest of the world is leaping forward in terms of public health, the country is still a home to many diseases of both nature– communicable as well as non-communicable.

The commitment of the government to make the country capable of manufacturing over 50 per cent of essential medicines deserves attention. Minister for Health Sharat Singh Bhandari while addressing a seminar, on "Opportunities and the Challenges for Pharmacists", the other day, disclosed that the government was working towards making the country self-reliant in essential medicines in the next few years. If the country produces essential medicines, no matter if it is produced at the public or private level, it will not only save billions of rupees that flows out every year in imports but also earn foreign currency by exporting the life saving drugs to other countries. Once the government endorses a bill concerning health institutions and a separate cell, which has already been established at the Health Ministry to look into the issues relating to drugs, starts functioning in full swing, such institutions will automatically be regulated for producing quality drugs and the public health sector of the country will get a face lift.

Disability Is No Bar

ACCORDING to the Nepal Association of the Blind, Jhapa district committee, the three sight-impaired students who gave their School Leaving Certificate Examinations this year from the district have passed in good divisions. As per the news report carried by this daily if Chandra Bhattarai of Mahendra Ratna School, Anarmani, passed in first division, then Hem Prasad Nepal of Saheed Dasarath Secondary School, Charali and Jeevan Kumari Gautam of Buddha Adarsha Secondary School, Bhudabare, passed in the second division. Since the SLC Exams, in the existing education system of the country, are considered to be the "iron-gate" that students wishing to pursue higher education must clear first, the three sight-impaired students should be duly commended for their respective achievements. The more so since these three sight-impaired SLC examines reportedly went on to notch up their respective successes inspite of the lack of special provision for the education of such students. What can be surmised from the report’s contention is that their collective feat could be mainly due to their individual diligence, perseverance and, of course, single-minded aim and purpose.

Undoubtedly, there were other sight-impaired students who, like their colleagues from Jhapa district, have passed this year’s SLC Examinations but, due to reasons yet to be ascertained, have yet to be named. And that they, like their three colleagues whose names have appeared in the news, had to overcome a plethora of problems prior to attaining the cherished goal of their ten years of schooling—herein, passing their SLC Exams in good divisions. The very fact that these same sight-impaired SLC examines, despite the lack of supporting provisions for their education, have passed their SLC Exams with flying colours is an eloquent indication that a student’s intellectual capacity simply cannot be gauged by his or her physical endowment. Going by the latest achievements of these SLC examines, to do so would leave the nation and society much the poorer. As such, if all these known—and unknown— SLC examines who have passed through the "iron-gate" mainly with their own efforts were to become worthy assets of the nation and society, it looks to reason for the concerned education authorities to come up with special facilities for these sight-impaired SLC achievers as well as for other such students of the nation.