Www. guardian. ng Illegal trade in killer cough syrup, fake medicines killing 500,000 Africans yearly, UN warns

• Fake antimalarial drugs kill 267,000 every year, 170,000 children die from unauthorised antibiotics

ASPECIAL report by the United Nations ( UN) has warned of rise in substandard and fake medicines in the Sahel.

According to a threat assessment report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC), from ineffective hand sanitisers to fake antimalarial pills, an illicit trade that grew during the COVID- 19 pandemic in 2020 is being meticulously dismantled by the UN and partner countries in Africa’s Sahel region.

It said substandard or fake medicines, like contraband baby cough syrups, are killing almost half a million sub- Saharan Africans every year.

Recall that in the summer of 2022, 70 Gambian babies and young children died from kidney failure, after ingesting cough syrup spooned out by their caregivers.

The World Health Organisation ( WHO) issued a global alert that four tainted paediatric products had originated in India, as local health authorities continue to investigate how the tragedy unfolded.

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

This fight is taking place as Sahelians face unprecedented strife: more than 2.9 million people have been displaced by conflict and violence, with armed groups launching attacks that have already shuttered 11,000 schools and 7,000 health centres.

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

“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,” the report says, explaining that street markets and unauthorised sellers, especially in rural or conflict- affected areas, are sometimes the only sources of medicines and pharmaceutical products.