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Fake antimalarial medications undermine africa malaria drive by wgre ethbtn
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Fake antimalarial medications undermine africa malaria drive |
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Fraudulent and substandard antimalarial drugs could be wrecking thechances of winning the war against malaria in Africa, researchers from the Wellcome Trust-MahosotHospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaborationreported in the Malaria Journal . The authors add that millions of lives could be lost over thenext twelve months unless urgent action is taken both within theAfrican continent and elsewhere in the world. Fake medications are coming onto the scene as a result ofdeliberate criminal activity, while substandard drugs are becomingmore common because of poor manufacturing practice. Not only arescores of patients being inadequately treated, but the presence ofthese undesirable and illegal medications significantly raises therisk of drug resistance among the malaria parasites.
Approximately 781,000 people are thought to have died from malariain 2009, says the World Malaria Report 2010 . Artemisinin derivatives are the best antimalarials, experts say.They work faster than other medications, such as chloroquine andmefloquine, and also have fewer side-effects. These drugs can beused on their own to treat malaria, but are more commonlyadministered alongside other medications, mainly because of therising problem of drug resistance. WHO (World Health Organization)recommends that for uncomplicated falciparum malaria, combinationtherapies be used.
The researchers set out to determine how prevalent counterfeit andsubstandard antimalarials were in Africa. They gathered data from11 nations in Africa between 2002 and 2010. They found that some fake drugs contained a combination oferroneous active ingredients, many of which only treated malariasigns and symptoms, but did not cure the disease itself. Theseunsuitable active ingredients were also found to cause potentiallyserious side-effects, especially when administered in combinationwith other medications, such as those used to treat HIV . Some of the fake drugs had small quantities of artemisininderivatives - experts believe this was so that they could be passedoff as authentic medications during authenticity tests.
Theycontain such small quantities of artemisinin derivatives that thereare useless in ridding the body of malaria parasites, and highlylikely to promote their resistance to artemisinin. Put simply, thepatient derives no benefit, and the parasite becomes more difficultto eliminate. Scientists managed to trace some of the pollen found in the fakemedicines to eastern Asia. In 2001, authorities in Guangshou,China, arrested Chinese and Nigerian men who were accused ofproducing fake halofantrine, an antimalarial.
Investigators saythat there is no pollen evidence of fake drug production occurringin Africa. Packaging materials for counterfeit antimalarialmedications have been confiscated in Nigeria. Research leader, Dr Paul Newton, said: "Public health organizations must take urgent, coordinated actionto prevent the circulation of counterfeit and substandard medicinesand improve the quality of the medicines that patients receive. Wemust move finally away from the use of single drugs and towards theexclusive use of combination therapies. The enormous investment in the development, evaluation anddeployment of antimalarials is wasted if the medicines thatpatients actually take are, due to criminality or carelessness, ofpoor quality and do not cure.
Malaria can be readily treated withthe right drugs of good quality, but poor-quality medicines - aswell as increasing mortality and morbidity - risk exacerbating theeconomic and social impact of malaria on societies that are alreadypoor. Worse still, they encourage drug resistance, potentially resultingin the failure of artemisinin treatments, with profoundconsequences for public health in Africa. Failure to take actionwill put at risk the lives of millions of people, particularlychildren and pregnant women." Dr. Newton says regulatory authorities in Africa need increasedinvestment, so that quality control can be more closely monitored.For the fight against malaria to be effective, people need accessto top-quality and affordable artemisinin combination therapies. Dr Jimmy Whitworth, Head of International Activities at theWellcome Trust, commented: "This research is very worrying and should act as an early warning.We have already begun to see the emergence of drug-resistantmalaria parasites in South-east Asia; substandard and counterfeitantimalarials and the availability of artemisinin monotherapiesthreaten to lead to the spread of drug resistance in Africa.
Ifthis happens, the effect could be devastating on efforts to controlmalaria in Africa." Written by Christian Nordqvist Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. I am an expert from Automobile, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as daewoo timing belt , toyota used engines.
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