In C.Africa, Informal Pharmacies Provide A Health Safety Net Of Sorts

Yaguina Nesly waits outside a hut whose walls of corrugated steel are daubed in green and white paint

Bangui, Central African Republic, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Apr, 2023 ):Yaguina Nesly waits outside a hut whose walls of corrugated steel are daubed in green and white paint.

It is one of a large number of unlicensed pharmacies in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR) -- outlets for cheap medication for the city's many poor.

Informal pharmacists, known as "doctas," flourish here, despite worries that they dispense counterfeit drugs, offer flawed medical advice and foster antibiotic resistance.

"I always buy my drugs here, because in hospital you can only get an appointment if you're lucky," says Nesly, 23, her nine-month-old baby swathed on her back.

"I prefer to come to my neighbourhood docta. It's faster and cheaper." Inside the makeshift structure, Stephen Liosso-Pivara-Bembe, 33, hands her pills for stomach pains.

Wearing a white coat and with a stethoscope slung around his neck, Liosso-Pivara-Bembe says he started medical school but never finished because he ran out of money.

He works seven days per week in the store, which is decorated with pictures of yellow pills and a sign in white letters reading: "Health First." People from wealthier economies may sneer or be shocked that illicit pharmacies openly trade like this.

But in the impoverished CAR, doctas are widely appreciated for providing a rough-and-ready safety net for health.

The landlocked country is struggling with a decade-long civil conflict, and ranks the second poorest country in the world in the UN's 189-nation Human Development Index.

It has just 0.1 doctors per 1,000 people -- 30 or 40 times fewer than countries in Western Europe, according to World Bank statistics.

Around 70 percent of medical care is provided by humanitarian organisations -- 2.7 million people, or around half the population, are in need of health assistance, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

There are no official figures for the number of doctas, but as an anecdotal guide, AFP counted 10 of the illegal pharmacies just in one major street in a rundown district.

Here, long lines of people form, especially in the evening.

In Bangui's fifth district, Antoine Bissa, a 39-year-old student nurse, was hard at work in a store named Biba Pharma.

He said he treated around 100 people per day "for injections and drugs," working until 11 pm. He said the business was the sole source of revenue to support his four children.