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LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Around 100 Pakistani heart patients have died after taking faulty medicine made locally and dozens more are in a critical condition in hospital, government officials said Thursday.
"Nearly 100 patients have died due to a reaction to heart drugs," said Shahbaz Sharif, the head of the government in central Punjab province.
The victims were mostly poor patients who received free drugs from the state run Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), he said.
The government said another 287 people had been admitted to hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, after taking the drugs.
Police have arrested owners of three pharmaceutical companies suspected of supplying the medicine.
"Police registered a case on Tuesday after reports of deaths of people due to reaction of drugs for cardiovascular diseases," police spokesman Haroon Rashid told AFP.
Initial investigations show that drugs supplied by local manufacturers were "sub-standard," police said.
The patients died due to a sudden drop in white blood cells, platelets and bone marrow damage.
The problem was first detected in December when contaminated drugs in at least one batch of medicine caused 23 deaths.
Sharif said samples of the suspect drugs have been sent to laboratories for tests in Pakistan, London and Paris.
"Action will be taken against those found guilty," he said.
Government official Khwaja Salman Rafiq said most of the deaths were due to "at least one of five medicines which PIC had been prescribing".
The medicine has since been removed from hospitals and stores, he told AFP.
Doctor Javed Akram, involved in the investigation, said 46,000 patients receive drugs from PIC every month. "On the basis of this we suspect the number of patients affected by sub-standard drugs may rise," he said.
Lahore the capital of Punjab, last year faced an outbreak of the deadly tropical disease dengue fever which killed more than 130 people.
<한글기사>
심장약 복용후 한마을 100명 사망
파키스탄 라호르에서 지난 3주 사이에 엉터리 심장병약을 복용하고 약100명이 사망한 것으로 추정된다고 AFP가 26일 현지 관리들의 말을 인용해 보도했다.
관리들은 그외에도 287명이 입원했으며 많은 수가 위독한 것으로 전해졌다.
관리들은 작년 12월15일부터 거의 4만명에게 엉터리 약이 공급됐을 것이라며 앞으로 희생자가 계속 발생할 수 있다고 우려했다.
현지 의료당국은 연간 60만명의 심장병 질환자들에게 무료로 심장병 약을 공급 해 왔다.
라호르에서는 겨우 3개월 전에 뎅기열 전염병이 퍼져 소동을 겪은 데 이어 엉터리 약 때문에 사망자가 속출하면서 주민들이 공포에 떨고 있다.
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