Counterfeit Drugs and the risks they pose to our health

According to the WHO definition “А counterfeit medicine is one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source”. The WHO says. “Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging.” Besides the dangerous health risks associated with the consumption of counterfeit drugs, it is also a form of corruption and insidious one at that. Continuing our theme on hidden forms of corruption, the sale or supply of counterfeit drugs shall be considered a dangerous form of this vice. If we thought corruption only affects a small section of society or practiced by small groups of people, we will be in for a rude shock. The direct impact the medicines we buy from our pharmacies or given by our hospitals have on our lives is huge and if any of these institutions will be involved in the sale or supply of counterfeit drugs our health and that of the entire country will be hugely affected. If we cannot ensure that the paracetamol we buy from our local pharmacy or dished by our district hospitals are genuine, the health of our families will take a hit. Counterfeits are dangerous health hazards as concoctions may contain anything from Lead to rat poison and has the potential to cause life-threatening defects such as cancers, Kidney failure and developmental defects. Patients may not get the therapeutics benefits expected from the product. Unexpected side-effects, worsening of the patient’s medical condition and dangerous allergic reactions are some of the other health risks associated with counterfeit drugs. Counterfeit drugs trade may be aiding money laundering and terrorism. Kenya has been adversely affected by this illegal counterfeit trade. Anti-malarial drugs sold in Kenya have been found to contain Sildenafil Citrate most commonly known as Viagra. This drug may be used to treat heart conditions and erectile dysfunction and one of its most deadly side-effect, although rare, is it may decrease blood flow to the optic nerve of the eye causing sudden loss of vision. Some anti-malarial drugs were found to contain anti-retroviral and anti-epileptic medications. Anti-malarial medicines are usually contraindicated for people with epilepsy. This can result in serious drug interactions leading to fatality. According to the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, worldwide counterfeit sales are worth more than $75 billion. The National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) reports that 30% of drugs sold in Kenya pharmacies are counterfeits and 40% of malarial drugs sold in the country are fake. This means 16 million Kenyans may have been sold a counterfeit anti-malarial drug which means your pharmacist is knowingly or unknowingly selling you counterfeit drugs or worse. “People are selling chalk instead of drugs. The fake medicines have led to several deaths, illicit trade has been treated in the past as victim-less crime and dismissed as petty offences’’ Abdullahi Lorot ,chair of a special working group of the NCAJ says. According to this report, ‘’it is estimated Kenya loses between Sh2 trillion to Sh5 trillion annually in illegal trade, usually done through smuggling of excerciseable goods, intellectual property infringements, trading with illegal weights and measures among others’’ Counterfeit drugs damage the trust between enforcement agencies and the populations. It hurts the reputation of the health system in the country. The growing influx of health tourists in India is contributed, in large part by the presence of counterfeit drugs in Kenya. Ironically, vast majority of counterfeit drugs come from India. The ability of law enforcement agencies to detect and prosecute counterfeiters is negatively affected by a shortage of financial resources, a lack of coordination between countries and weak anti-counterfeiting laws in the country where sentences on the convicted is often lax. Awareness and information is always the beginning. The public must be provided with information to help identify such drugs and enforcement agencies must be strengthened through revamping the laws governing sale and supply of fake medications. Those convicted must face long term prison sentences to act as deterrent and the authorities must use new technology to counter the increasing trading of the counterfeit drugs as well as monitoring supply chains and addressing corruption.