Kenya: Sales of China's unsafe contraceptive pills continue even after years of ban:
A year ago, when Susan Vamitha felt sick, she thought it was the side effects of a birth control pill she had started taking a few months earlier, but it turned out she was eight weeks pregnant.
Susan, now 32, is a mother of three, but she didn't know the pill she started using in June 2021 had been banned in Kenya.
In Kenya people commonly know this pill as 'Sofia', but this pill is made in China and all the details written on the box are in Chinese language only.
The translation of the first line says that this box contains 'Leonorgestrel Fast Estradiol' tablets. According to the second line, this contraceptive pill works for a long time. After that, in the third line, the name of the company that manufactures this pill is written, namely, "Zizou Pharmaceutical Company Limited."
Kenyan authorities banned the sale of the pill 10 years ago because it contained levonorgestrel 40 times the recommended level for birth control pills.
Levonorgestrel is a hormonal drug used in a number of birth control methods.
Kenya's Ministry of Health has not released all the results of its research on the pill, but it has said that it has been seen if the pill fails to prevent pregnancy and a baby is still born. That puberty happens early in such children.
"I didn't know it was banned," says Susan. Many of my friends were using this pill and they did not experience any side effects.
Like many other Kenyan women, Susan started taking the pill because it was cheap and you only have to take one pill a month.
Women buy only one 'Sophia' every month as most drug dealers do not sell in large quantities. A pill costs between 300 Kenyan shillings (two and a half US dollars) and 400 shillings.
Other family planning methods available in the country require women to take a contraceptive pill which is a pill taken daily. A month's worth of pills can be obtained from public hospitals for about $1.70, but the pills are not necessarily always available in public hospitals. This is the reason why many women have to buy daily pills from stores.
This is why many women choose the hormonal implant method as an alternative, after which you do not get pregnant for three months. Hormonal implants are available at public hospitals for around $5. Also used is the coils method which lasts for years and costs about nine dollars.
Condoms are also provided free of charge in public toilets and offices frequented by the general public but sometimes run out, although condoms are available at shops.
"Since I had a copper T-shaped coil to prevent pregnancy and it was giving me back pain, I took it out and started using the pill," Vamitha told the BBC. decided to
Vamitha also preferred the pill because her friends who were asking her to use 'Sofia' did not gain weight even with the pill. Vamitha says she didn't want to use any contraceptives that would make her gain weight.
But she was not feeling very well since starting the pill. He understood that his body was just taking time to get used to the new medicine and after some time his body would accept this new pill as well. In the beginning he had to take two pills every month and then one pill in a month.
“I started getting headaches and nausea. I didn't get my period for the first month."
This did not worry Vimitha as she got her period the next month, but by the third month she had no period again. It was only when she quit again in the third month that she started to worry.
Vamitha's husband then started researching the contraceptive pill and found that it had been banned.
Vamitha said that after that, the couple became nervous about using the banned pill and "when I realized I was pregnant, I became worried about the effect it would have on my baby."
Kenya battles unsafe Chinese contraceptive pill a decade after ban2022
They now have a healthy three-month-old daughter, but the couple is worried about the lack of information and the potential side effects on their daughter if the girl is prematurely matured.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 50% of women in sub-Saharan African countries have access to modern contraceptive methods.
As for Kenya, contraceptives or other methods are not openly discussed, largely due to the cultural and religious beliefs of this patriarchal society.
Some men do not allow their wives to use contraceptives while some religious sects are against it. For example, in eastern Kenya, the Kaonokya Christian sect rejects all modern medicine because the sect believes that only prayer is permitted in the Bible regarding childbirth.
According to population and development expert Dr. Josephine Kabaro, a grassroots approach to adopting modern family planning methods may be a better strategy.
"We need community health volunteers who are more empowered because a woman trusts her neighbors and friends more than a healthcare worker at a dispensary," Dr Kabaro told the BBC.
She says there is a gap of ignorance about available birth control methods, along with many misconceptions that need to be addressed.
Perhaps a combination of the two is needed in Kenya, as gynecologist Bridget Munda says women's health care providers should also be consulted so they can adopt family planning methods that are more appropriate.
"One size does not fit all," he said while talking to the BBC.
However, lack of contraceptives and other facilities in dispensaries in rural areas forces some women to adopt mixed methods.
Despite the ban, Sophia's pill remains readily available. According to Dr. Kabaro, the reality is that women are not aware that it is banned, due to poor provision of information.
He said that in this regard, only using the media is not enough, but at the grassroots level, it is necessary to ensure that the public can understand well why a drug is banned.
Drug dealers know that Sophia has been banned, and vendors are selling the pill despite another warning issued by the health ministry last month.
This pill is not kept in front of the shops but it is often sold to those reliable customers who come to buy it every month.
The BBC visited several pharmacies in the capital, Nairobi, and inquired about Sophia.
A drug dealer, who did not want to be named, said that they have the pill but it is not displayed. The said drug dealer said that they buy Sophia from suppliers who bring it from neighboring countries.
Earlier this month, an official of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) told the Kenyan daily 'Standard' that they had seized a shipment of Sophia on the border between Kenya and Uganda.
Vamitha says she bought the pills for herself from a friend who buys pills wholesale from a supplier.
According to Vamitha, when she asked her friend to bring the pills, she and others around knew that Sofia had been banned.
Vamitha became pregnant despite using Sophia, but her friends were not ready to give up the pill. Similarly, on various women's forums on Facebook, many women have mentioned their complaints about Sophia, but many women are still using this pill.
There have been discussions about Sophia on at least three of these forums, where several women who took the pill said they became pregnant despite taking the pill.
This at least convinced Vimitha to keep urging her friends and other women to think of another method of birth control.
'All I know is that the mention of Sophia makes my body tingle. I don't know what family planning method I will use to prevent my fourth pregnancy, but I will now have Sophia. I will not touch it.'
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