Row as family planning drug is recalled

The drug has been withdrawn from all pharmacies and hospitals in Zambia after widespread fears that it was contaminated with HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS. The drug was sourced from the United States. But the US Embassy in Lusaka denied that the drug could be contaminated, saying there were stringent measures in the US to prevent contamination.

But Depo Provera has caused such an uproar among Zambians that a Member of Parliament has demanded that the American ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez, a woman, be injected with the drug to demonstrate its safety. This led to Speaker of the  National Assembly Amusa Mwanamwambwa to order Health Minister Dr Brian Chituwo to issue a ministerial statement in the House. Earlier, Dr Chituwo, who worked in various hospitals in Zambia as a medical doctor, said on national televisio that it was not possible, according the biology of HIV, to live outside the human body.