Manufacturer increases saline supply
Manufacturer increases saline supply
Pharmaceutical Factory No 3, one of the major manufacturers of medicines in Laos, has increased its production of saline and rehydration solutions by 30 to 40 percent in response to rising demand.
“We began to increase production on June 18 after learning that the outbreak of dengue had intensified,” the deputy managing director of the state owned company, Mr Phoukhong Choummala, told Vientiane Times on Tuesday.
“Now our factory runs seven days a week to ensure that the production of saline and rehydration solutions meets market needs.”
Mr Phoukhong said that demand for the products had seen a rapid increase since the middle of June due to the dengue outbreak. The disease has killed more than 75 people in the country with most of the casualties in the central and souther n parts of the country.
He said that the company supplies the solutions to hospitals nationwide, admitting that the outbreak of the mosquito transmitted disease had helped to boost production and sales this year.
“We expect that we will achieve our revenue target of 24 billion kip this year because of the disease. We earlier projected that we would have difficulty achieving the target due to a lower demand for the products in the beginning of the year.
He said that despite the company making big gains due to the outbreak, he was unhappy to see the disease spreading so much in Laos, adding that the company wanted to see the country free from the scourge of dengue.
He said that the company increased the price of the solutions by 2 to 3 percent as it needed additional money to pay extra to the workers to get them to work on holidays. He said that the increase in price should not have a big impact on the patients.
Mr Phoukhong said that the sector concerned should increase efforts to introduce measures to prevent an outbreak of the disease rather than concentrating on measures to provide treatment to patients. He also said that Laos is sufferin g from the dengue 3 virus, which can kill patients within four days.
He urged dengue patients and the general public to drink more water and rehydrate, being one of the best ways to help those who have it to recover. He said there was no specific medicine to cure dengue at the moment.
He al so said that the factory supported the efforts of the government to campaign on the destruction of the mosquito habitats as one of the measures to prevent the further spread of the disease in the coun try.
However, Mr Phoukhong said that Laos was too late to launch the campaign, adding that it should have started in January when the first case of dengue was detected.
vientiane times
