UN Drugs agency warns of cough syrup, fake medicine trafficked into Sahel

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Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau

UNITED NATIONS, 28th May. WHO and UN drugs and crime agency on Saturday warned that 70 Gambian babies and young children died from kidney failure after ingesting cough syrup given by their caregivers in summer of 2022.

World Health Organization issued a global alert that four tainted paediatric products had originated in India, as local health authorities continue to investigate how this tragedy unfolded.

It focused on the illegal trade in substandard and fake medicines trafficked in the Sahel.

It said ineffective hand sanitizer to fake antimalarial pills, an illicit trade grew during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is being meticulously dismantled by the UN and partner countries in Africa’s Sahel region.

According to a threat assessment report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, substandard or fake medicines, like contraband baby cough syrup, are killing almost half a million sub-Saharan Africans every year

The report explained how nations in the Sahel, a 6,000-kilometre-wide swath stretching from the Red Sea to the Atlantic is home to 300 million people, are joining forces to stop fake medicines at their borders and hold the perpetrators accountable.

Over 2.9 million people have been displaced by conflict and violence, with armed groups launched attacks that have closed 11,000 schools and 7,000 health centres in Sahel region

Health care is scarce in the region has among the world’s highest incidence of malaria and where infectious diseases are one of the leading causes of death.

The report said that “This disparity between the supply of and demand for medical care is at least partly filled by medicines supplied from the illegal market to treat self-diagnosed diseases or symptoms,”

It explained that street markets and unauthorized sellers, especially in rural or conflict-affected areas, are sometimes the only sources of medicines and pharmaceutical products.

The study showed that the cost of the illegal medicine trade is high, in terms of health care and human lives.

Fake or substandard antimalarial medicines kill 267,000 sub-Saharan Africans every year, it added.

Some 170,000 sub-Saharan African children die every year from unauthorized antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia.

WHO estimated that caring for people who have used falsified or substandard medical products for malaria treatment in sub-Saharan Africa costs up to $44.7 million every year.

Corruption is one of the main reasons that the trade is allowed to flourish.

Over 40 per cent of substandard and falsified medical products reported in Sahel region between 2013 and 2021 land in the regulated supply chain, the report showed.

Products diverted from the legal supply chain typically come from such exporting nations as Belgium, China, France, and India. Some end up on pharmacy shelves.

The report found that the perpetrators are employees of pharmaceutical companies, public officials, law enforcement officers, health agency workers and street vendors, all motivated by potential financial gain.

According to a UNODC research brief on the issue traffickers are finding ever more sophisticated routes, from working with pharmacists to taking their crimes online.

The terrorist groups and non-State armed groups are commonly associated with trafficking in medical products in the Sahel mainly revolves around consuming medicines or levying “taxes” on shipments in areas under their control.

The efforts are under way to adopt a regional approach to the problem, involving every nation in the region.

All Sahel countries except Mauritania have ratified a treaty to establish an African medicines agency, and the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative, launched by the African Union in 2009, to improve access to safe, affordable medicine.

UNODC findings showed all the Sahel countries have legal provisions in place relating to trafficking in medical products, but some laws are outdated.

The agency recommended revised legislation alongside enhanced coordination among

Law enforcement and judicial efforts that safeguard the legal supply chain should be a priority, said UNODC.

It pointed out that the seizure of 605 tonnes of fake medicines between 2017 to 2021 by the authorities.

Operation Pangea coordinated by UN partner INTERPOL in 90 countries, targeted online sales of pharmaceutical products. Results saw seizures of unauthorized antivirals rise by 18 per cent and unauthorized chloroquine, to treat malaria, by 100 per cent.

UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said “Transnational organized crime groups take advantage of gaps in national regulation and oversight to peddle substandard and falsified medical products,”

“We need to help countries increase cooperation to close gaps, build law enforcement and criminal justice capacity, and drive public awareness to keep people safe,” he concluded.

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