(3 minutes read)
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said that half of the medicines available in the Sahel region are either sub-standard or their period of use has expired. This development is likely to trigger international attention.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said that half of the medicines available in the Sahel region are either sub-standard or their period of use has expired. This development is likely to trigger international attention since the after-effects of inferior quality of drugs have been highlighted at several forums. Recent happenings in Gambia, where several children died allegedly because of taking drugs, had attracted international attention.
The inferior drugs are withdrawn from the supply chain in Europe and to a lesser extent from China and India because of the surveillance of the respective administrations. The sad commentary is that such withdrawn medicines from the supply chain, then, often pass through seaports in Guinea, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria, before being transported to the Sahel region.
The UNODC report highlights Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad as the hardest-hit countries because of the widespread use of substandard medicines. Studies indicate a good percentage of substandard or falsified medicines ranging from 19 to 50% are trafficked in the Sahel region.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/pan-african-payment-and-settlement-system-commercially-launched/
https://trendsnafrica.com/pan-african-festival-of-cinema-and-television-in-burkina-faso/
The study also points out that once the medicines are diverted from the official supply chain, there is little guidance on how it should be used by the patient, leading to microbial and antimalarial resistance. Those who engaged in trafficking of substandard or expired medicines include employees of pharmaceutical companies to street vendors and security guards, the study points out.
