MADEGE STORY-FAKE MALARIA DRUGS
The rise of counterfeit drugs it said is one of the reasons for malaria’s continued virulence in the Tanzania whereby most of people used ineffective medicine, expired malaria drugs, substandard and fake.
Drug control officer from Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) Adonis Bitegeko said that, as long as effective medicines have existed, people have produced fake versions. That is because counterfeiting pharmaceutical drugs is profitable business for manufacturers. This illegal activity is most common in places with little government oversight and limited access to safe, affordable and high quality medicines.
Bitegeko said various reports have found that many fake medicines originate in India, followed by China, Hong Kong and Turkey, some illicit drug manufacturers appear to have connections with organized crime groups.
Generally, fake malaria drugs imitate one of two types of common antimalarial medicines: quinines and artemisins Quinine was first used to treat malaria in the 17th century. Synthetic quinine-based drugs became available in the early 20th century. The most common is chloroquine.
Hawa Juma who fallen ill was discovered took fake ant malaria drug after decided to go for the malaria diagnosis as the doctor gave her malaria medicine that did not give a relief to her after three days of treatment, “I took the drugs written by doctor in a private dispensary when I had malaria two years ago. Nothing happened. Two days later I was still with fever, so I went to a hospital and found the drugs were probably fake,” said Hawa Juma.