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With the rising cases of doping, over-the-counter drugs have turned into a nightmare for Kenyan runners.
In Kenya, most people walk to a pharmacy and purchase a certain drug to treat an ailment or just to reduce pain without having any prior prescription from certified medical personnel.
However, while this is working for the ordinary citizen, it has turned into a nightmare for Kenyan athletes who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law for using a banned substance.
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15:30 - 17.07.2023
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With Kenya recording over 70 doping cases in the last one year, with 25 in 2023 alone, the country remains in Category A on the list of nations on watch for anti-doping violations and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has warned athletes against over-the-counter medications.
“The reason as to why this should not happen is that some of the substances that are prohibited in sports are found in normal medications,” said Dr Martin Yauma, who is in charge of education and research at ADAK.
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“The issue of going over the counter to purchase medication, sometimes you can purchase a medication that will not deal with the disease that you have because you don’t know what you are suffering from.
“When you are sick, go to the doctor and introduce yourself that you are an athlete so that the doctor can look at the list of prohibited substances. If there is a substance that is within the medication that the doctor is giving you, then they can give you an alternative that can take care of your health without doping.”
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It means walking to a pharmacy and picking medicine is now impossible for athletes as they are likely to suffer irreparable consequences.
ADAK have been firm on this given the rising cases of unscrupulous businessmen who collude with rogue agents and coaches to administer the drugs to runners while not informing them of the dangers, leading to lengthy bans.
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07:39 - 15.07.2023
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“We have a problem where we have athletes who are not sick but because they know some of the medications have these prohibited substances, they go to abuse these drugs. These are the kind of athletes who are intentionally doping,” added Dr Yauma.
“For example, EPO (Erythropoietin) you have to take it while you are sick and it has to be prescribed by a doctor but if you are just normal and take it, then it is not taking care of your health. It will have an effect on your body to compete unfairly.”
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However, not every pharmacy or even doctor in Kenya has access to the list of banned substances, making it a nightmare for some athletes especially those who lack information or are based in some remote areas of the country.
“We have not reached all of them but we have really tried to educate and sensitise our doctors and provided the list for them. We have formed partnerships with pharmacists, doctors, and clinical officers’ associations and we are even using anti-doping as a platform for them to earn points where they invite us to their workshops and we provide this to them,” said Dr Yauma.
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10:30 - 17.07.2023
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To avoid falling foul of the rules, athletes are advised to take advantage of the Therapeutic Use Exemption, a platform where they request for approval to use certain medication to take care of their normal health.
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