Fake medicines kill tens of thousands of Africans each year
Sometimes toxic, they are much cheaper than the imported pharmaceuticals offered by chemists
When Moustapha Dieng came down with stomach pains one day last month he did the sensible thing and went to a doctor in his hometown of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital. The doctor prescribed a malaria treatment but the medicine cost too much for Dieng, a 30-year-old tailor, so he went to an unlicensed street vendor for pills on the cheap. “It was too expensive at the pharmacy. I was forced to buy street drugs as they are less expensive,” he said. Within days he was hospitalised, sickened by the very drugs that were supposed to cure him. Tens of thousands of people in Africa die each year because of fake and counterfeit medication, an EU-funded report released on Tuesday said. The drugs are mainly made in China but also in India, Paraguay, Pakistan and the UK. Almost half the fake and low-quality medicines reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) between 2013 and 2017 were found to be in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the report, also backed by Interpol and the Institute for Secu...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.