The tablets turn...

Medicines also suffer from heat

The ongoing heat may have consequences that are still difficult to predict, which, however, also directly threaten to affect the health of Russians. The heat has become a force majeure for the pharmaceutical market. Considering that there are only a few modern fully air-conditioned pharmaceutical warehouses in the country, where different temperature conditions are maintained in different parts of the room, where a computerized system for maintaining temperature and humidity operates, the safety of medical products must be studied at a minimum.

For now, it's up to the consumer to be vigilant. It is quite possible to be poisoned by a spoiled medicine at your own expense, because an overheated medicine, at best, becomes simply ineffective, and at worst, unwanted microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) multiply on it, which cause severe poisoning. The use of “degraded” insulins and some injection and infusion solutions can be deadly.

There are three modes for storing medicines in warehouses: at temperatures from 15 to 25 degrees, from 10 to 15 degrees and from 2 to 8-10 degrees. The first storage group includes the bulk of drugs, and to maintain their storage conditions, usually no effort is required from the logistics operator - this is the natural temperature in a large enclosed room, heated in winter and regularly ventilated in summer. The second and especially the third group of drugs, even under more benign weather conditions, are kept in refrigerated compartments or even in special refrigerators.

This summer, it is impossible to maintain the desired temperature inside a room (usually a hot iron hangar) without forced cooling. Due to overloading of power systems, electricity at industrial facilities and warehouses has been cut off more than once, so those medicines that require cold storage also suffer. As a result, all drugs, albeit at different rates, deteriorate. According to the degree of danger in current conditions, drugs can be ranked depending on the form of release. According to doctors, all injection solutions have become the most dangerous. Due to improper temperature conditions, precipitation occurs in them or crystals form. You should carefully read the instructions for the drug, where its proper appearance and color are always described in detail. In second place are pills (you can never tell from them whether they have gone bad or not - that’s the danger). Next come suppositories and ointments, the fusible texture of which is disrupted at high temperatures, and the active ingredients decompose. Since these drugs come into contact with the skin and mucous membranes, substandardness may manifest itself in a rash or irritation. The consequences of using spoiled eye ointments are more serious: they are usually produced under sterile conditions, and when heated they lose their aseptic properties.

“By and large, whether a medicinal product deteriorates when the storage temperature increases or not is more influenced by the conditions under which it was produced than in what form,” Andrey Mladentsev, general director of Farmat LLC, told Vremya Novostei, a logistics company. a company with one of the most modern warehouses in the country. According to him, if a medicine is produced at a plant that meets the international GMP production quality standard, then it will retain its properties, even if storage conditions are violated. “If at the time of production the drug was not, say, inseminated with microorganisms or fungal spores, and its packaging is sealed, then the quality will not suffer,” says Mr. Mladentsev. According to this logic, the most questions arise about various dietary supplements, which often contain natural and plant raw materials that do not undergo deep processing, including heat treatment.

Galina PAPERNAYA