In India, 1 out of 10 medicines 'fake'

According to the latest research report by the health watchdog WHO, 1 out of 10 medicines in India are 'fake', and may cause severe illness.

India is found to be among the countries where 1 out of 10 medicines are 'fake'; vulnerable communities affected the most. These findings are part of the WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for substandard and falsified medical products.

15 shockers revealed by the report
On November 23, World Health Organization released two reports which showed the following:

• WHO has received around 1,500 reports of cases of substandard or falsified products since 2013 in all therapeutic categories -- from cancer medicines to contraception, from antibiotics to vaccines
• It is first time in 10 years that the WHO is publishing estimates on substandard and falsified medical products in low and middle income countries
• Around 42 per cent of such kind of reports came from the WHO African region
• 21 per cent of the reports came from the WHO region of the Americas

• Remaining 21 per cent was received from the WHO European region
• 10.5 per cent of medicines sold countries like India are either substandard or falsified
• According to the health watchdogs, these medicines not only fail to treat or prevent diseases, but can also cause serious illness -- or even death
• Antimalarials and antibiotics are the most commonly reported ones

• The most important antimalarial medicine -- Artemisinin, was largely low-grade when it first arrived in the markets
• Health workers waste time trying out alternative treatments -- when all that is really needed is a quality version of the same treatment. The worst cases described in this report are of people dying, either from untreated disease or because the product itself kills them
• The report further says that the forged medicines promote antimicrobial resistance in people, who can pass on the mutant infection while travelling abroad
• If a treatment course contains only a fraction of the correct dose, or if it is so badly made that the active ingredients are not released properly, then it is only likely to destroy some of the pathogens, and not all of them. Such bacteria or virus-resistance to medicines cannot be treated, even with full proper treatment. It will only multiply and spread

• Falsified medical products strain the budgets of households and health systems
• Legitimate manufacturers of these medicines suffer financially and reputation-wise when criminals falsify their products
• The report also says that some 15 years ago, global sales of medicines broke records, and since then, sales have doubled again, with by far the largest growth occurring in middle-income markets like India
• Finally, the report says that still, this might only be a fraction of the total problem, and many cases may be going unreported. For example, only 2 per cent of reports of these fake products came from the South-East Asia region.

(Source: India Today)