Health:- Third of malaria drugs 'are fake

India launches new malaria drug
A third of malaria drugs used around the world tostem the spread of
the disease are counterfeit, data suggests.
Researchers who looked at 1,500 samples of seven malaria drugs from
seven countries in South East Asiasay poor-quality and fake tablets
are causing drug resistance and treatment failure.
Data from 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including over 2,500 drug
samples showed similar results.
Experts say The Lancet Infectious Diseases research is a "wake-up call".
The US researchers from the Fogarty International Center at the
National Institutes of Health who carried out the work believe the
problem may even be much greater thandata suggests.
"Most cases are probably unreported, reported to the wrong agencies,
or kept confidential by pharmaceutical companies," say the
researchers.
No large studies of drug quality have been carried out in China or
India - countries that house a third of the world's population and are
a"probable" source of many counterfeit drugs as well asgenuine
antimalarial medicines, they say.
Lead researcher Gaurvika Nayyar stressed that 3.3 billion people were
at risk of malaria, which is classified as endemic in 106 countries.
"Between 655,000 and 1.2 million people die every year from Plasmodium
falciparum infection," he said.
"Much of this morbidity and mortality could be avoided if drugs
available to patients were efficacious, high quality, and used
correctly."
In parts of the world wheremalaria is prevalent, antimalarial drugs
are widely distributed and self-prescribed, both correctly and
incorrectly, say the researchers.
The study found there are insufficient facilities to monitor the
quality of antimalarial drugs and poor consumer and health-worker
knowledge about the therapies.
And there is a lack of regulatory oversight of manufacturing and
little punitive action for counterfeiters.
Despite this, malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25%
globallysince 2000, and by 33% in the WHO African Region.
But the World Health Organization says maintaining current rates of
progress will not be enough to meet global targets for malaria
control.
It is calling for renewed investment in diagnostic testing, treatment,
and surveillance for malaria/

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