News

Fake malaria drugs risk in Africa

19 January 2012

Hopes of controlling malaria in Africa could be wrecked by criminals who are circulating counterfeit and substandard drugs, threatening millions of lives, scientists are warning.

There has been growing hope of an end to the age-old scourge of malaria, with UN and donor countries having contributed to a massive effort to get modern technological tools to endemic areas, including insecticide-impregnated bed nets and new drugs that had their origins in China, derived from artemisinin plants.

But large parts of Africa are threatened by the distribution of fake and poor quality anti-malarials made illicitly in China.

Analysis showed some counterfeits contained a mixture of wrong active pharmaceutical ingredients, some of which may initially alleviate malaria symptoms but would not cure malaria. Worse still, these unexpected ingredients could cause potentially serious side effects, particularly if they were to interact with other medication that the patient was taking, such as anti-retroviral therapies for HIV.

Read the full article on The Guardian’s website. More news headlines can be found in our News archive.