Iodine pills might be distributed through family doctors and pharmacies

Iodine pills might be distributed through family doctors and pharmacies, says Health Minister Alexandru Rafila, who adds that authorities will prepare the legal framework so that they can be distributed to the population, but only after an information campaign.

The information campaign would start tomorrow, and the Ministry of Health will provide a call center “served by specialized people who can answer people’s questions.” The pills may be distributed with an instructional flyer and should only be given after a possible notice to the authorities: “The treatment is given as a single dose within 6 hours of the notice to the authorities.”

“These pills will not only be distributed when people know what it is all about. Each pill distributed will be accompanied by an instruction flyer, as these pills have been distributed in other countries as well “, the Minister of Health underlined.

 “We are not under the threat of a nuclear accident, but it cannot be ruled out in peacetime situations, especially in a border war situation. Such accidents are possible, but they are not probable”, Alexandru Rafila also said.

“We live in less normal times, it’s good for the world to be prepared. What we learned in the pandemic is that we need to have responsible preventive behavior,” Rafila added.

The Minister of Health voiced hope that the potassium iodide pills will be eventually distributed by the family doctors, who refused, motivating that the congestion and bureaucracy would risk blocking their medical activity in the offices in the coming weeks.

“We will find a legal and correct way for both family doctors and pharmacies to distribute these pills,” said the Minister of Health. Regarding family doctors, Rafila says that “I am sorry that they consider it a bureaucratic issue. We work to make it as bureaucratic as possible and as time consuming as possible. The family doctors have a responsibility regarding the preventive actions for the health condition ”.

The 30 million tablets of potassium iodide pills are produced in an emergency by Antibiotice Iași  and they cost “around 30 million lei”, the equivalent of about 6 million lei, as Minister Alexandru Rafila announced.