A  crucial piece of evidence in the ongoing investigations into how injections at the New Senchi Health Centre resulted in the death of some four patients has been tampered with.

Medical Superintendent at the VRA Hospital revealed this to Joy News’ Manasseh Azure Awuni who has been following the story.

Dr Seth Fiadayor said James Yeboah, the Disease Control Officer who administered the drugs to the patients showed him a sample of the solution he used to dilute the penicillin powder during his first visit to the facility after the deaths were reported.

He said even though he requested that the substance be kept safely for forensic examination, his instruction was ignored.

“I asked him to withhold any more procedures, keep the solution and the mixtures safe for forensic laboratory testing in the hope that we will get the specimen for tests and no more patients will be involved in this very sad incident.”

But between the time the Dr Fiadayor requested for the evidence to be preserved and when the FDA got there, it seems some work has been done to destroy the evidence which would have helped investigations.

Without this piece of evidence, the FDA and the other team of investigators would have to rely on samples taken from the deceased and the patient who is still in the hospital.

The FDA also has in its possession empty bottles of penicillin collected from the health facility and may have to depend on that during its investigations.

Two of the patients who have died from the injections

Some four persons have died after a fatal injection was administered to them when they reported to the New Senchi Health Centre with skin infections.

About 16 more people are said to have been injected with the medication which had been found to contain expired Benzathine Penicillin.

The Disease Control Officer, James Yeboah, who is said to have administered the drugs and runs an unsupervised private clinic at the Health Centre is in the grips of the police who have instituted investigations into the deaths.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has also dispatched a Pharmacovigilance team to the health facility to unravel the mystery behind the incident.