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sab
United Kingdom
912 Posts |
 Posted - 05 Jan 2006 : 21:25:24
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Greetings all, Earlier this year I read an article where WHO estimated that fake drugs account for more than 10% of the global medicines market. Research tells us that counterfeit drugs exceed US$35B. More than 100,000 malaria tablets brought by a charity in Southeast Asia turned out to be fake. In Haiti, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India and Argentina, 500 patients, mainly children, died from the use of anti-freeze in the manufacture of fake paracetamol syrup. Antidepressants were re-packaged as antiretroviral drugs and sold in the Republic of Congo. A fake meningitis vaccine distributed in Niger in 1995 is estimated to have led to the deaths of 2,500 people. It is estimated that fake drugs led to the deaths of 192,000 patients in China in 2001 that were given ineffective treatments. In south-east Asia between a third and a half of packets of artesunate, a life-saving antimalarial drug, were found to contain no active ingredient and had no effect against the disease. In Cambodia 70per cent of the antimalarial drug sold in shops and markets – which accounts for 90per cent of the total supply in the country was fake. A man taken to a clinic with severe malaria and carrying tablets with him that were fake, he died next day. WHO estimates that 200,000 deaths annually might be avoided if medicines were ‘effective, of good quality and used correctly’? Yet few warnings are issued to enable consumers to spot the counterfeit versions. The Pharmaceutical Security Institute, said in an e-mail to researches; “It is necessary to keep fake drug information confidential for commercial reasons. If a patient came to harm as a result of a counterfeit product, the company’s good reputation is in danger of disappearing.” (Independant 2005) Just what makes one human exchange a 'dud medicine' for money from the sick & poor who are living in hope & fear and trust there purchase will save their life? peace & freedom
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The world would be a poorer place if it was peopled by children whose parents risked nothing in the cause of social justice, for fear of personal loss. (Joe Slovo - African revolutionary) |
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