One in 10 medicines fake;
diseases becoming untreatable: WHO
An estimated one in 10 medical
products circulating in low- and middle-income countries like India is either
"substandard or falsified", says a new research report from the World
Health Organisation (WHO). According to
WHO, these medicines not only fail to treat or prevent diseases but can also
cause serious illness or even death.
"Substandard and falsified medicines
particularly affect the most vulnerable communities," said Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General. The report highlighted that since 2013,
the WHO has received 1,500 reports of cases of substandard or falsified
products. Of these, antimalarials and antibiotics are the most commonly
reported.
Most of such reports (42 per cent)
come from the WHO African Region, 21 per cent from the WHO Region of the
Americas, and 21 per cent from the WHO European Region.
"This is likely just a small fraction of the total problem and many cases may be going unreported. For example, only 8 per cent of reports of substandard or falsified products to WHO came from the WHO Western Pacific Region, 6 per cent from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, and just 2 per cent from the WHO South-East Asia Region," said the report.
The report further says that substandard or falsified medicines promote antimicrobial resistance in people, who can pass on the mutant infection while travelling abroad. Such bacteria or virus resistant to medicine will become impossible to treat.
"This is likely just a small fraction of the total problem and many cases may be going unreported. For example, only 8 per cent of reports of substandard or falsified products to WHO came from the WHO Western Pacific Region, 6 per cent from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, and just 2 per cent from the WHO South-East Asia Region," said the report.
The report further says that substandard or falsified medicines promote antimicrobial resistance in people, who can pass on the mutant infection while travelling abroad. Such bacteria or virus resistant to medicine will become impossible to treat.
According to the report there is clear evidence
that resistance to the most important antimalarial medicine, artemisinin, first
appeared in a part of the world where at one point between 38 and 90 per cent
of the artemisinin medicines on the market were substandard or falsified.
The substandard and falsified medical products also
affect the legitimate manufacturers of both generic and innovators
pharmaceutical products who suffer financially and reputation-wise when
criminals falsify their products.
30.11.2017
If you light a lamp for somebody,
it will also brighten you path
Buddha
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