Reconsider the ban

Reconsider the ban

News:

1. Recently, the Union Health Ministry banned on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin.

Important facts:

2. Uses of  oxytocin:

• The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a life-saver for women.
• Doctors use it to induce labour in pregnant women and to stem postpartum bleedings.
• Because of its critical role in maternal health, the World Health Organisation recommends it as the drug of choice in postpartum haemorrhage.

3. The government ban  this because:

• Misuse of the hormone in the dairy industry.
• Oxytocin stimulates lactation in cattle; dairy farmers inject the drug indiscriminately to increase milk production.
• This has spawned several unlicensed facilities that manufacture the drug for veterinary use.
• oxytocin leads to infertility in dairy animals
• It has also been linked to mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udder.
• However, a 2014 study by researchers at the National Institute of Nutrition concluded that oxytocin content in buffalo milk did not alter with injections.

4. Suggestions:

• Strengthen regulations and crack down on illegal production.
• Despite calls for a complete ban on over-the-counter sale of antibiotics, India has been reluctant to do so.
• In much of rural India, more people still die due to a lack of antibiotics than due to antibiotic-resistance.
• If only a single public sector unit manufactures the drug, as the government plans, this could lead to drug shortages and price hikes.