A metal shard peeping out of a broken tablet has been doing rounds on the social media raising concerns on the safety measures undertaken by the pharmaceuticals during the time of manufacture.

It could even be a thin plastic shred or a piece of thread that could surprise you out of a tablet. It is just by chance that the patient happened to break the tablet in half and found the shard protruding from the pill. These metal pieces could be found inside the bottle, or sometimes in the pill itself. This contamination could be from the place of manufacture and may be pretty difficult to detect at the site of packing.

The contamination in medicines though rare, has been reported. And this has caused panic and anxiety among the patients. Dr. P Sivaprakasam, Medical Superintendent of Gem Hospital says that some of the pharmaceutical companies purchase drugs from abroad and sell the packaged drugs with names familiar in the domestic market. It is difficult to ascertain the exact origin of contamination. Nevertheless it is better to be safe than sorry. Even as the piece of metal would be rejected by the system, it is better to be safe.

Dr. Anu Rathna, Gynaecologist , General Hospital, Thiruvallur claims that there is no possibility of such cases arising out of the stocks in government hospitals. However it is better to break the pill into two and consume it to avoid presence of something foreign inside, she adds.