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The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warns that up to half of the medicines available in the Sahel region are either substandard or expired.
Inferior drugs are withdrawing from the European supply chain and to some extent from China and India. It then often transits ports in Guinea, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria before being shipped to the Sahel.
A UNODC report released on Tuesday highlighted Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad as the worst-hit countries.
“While there are no reliable data on the total volume traded in various forms and channels in the Sahel, research suggests that the proportion of substandard or counterfeit medicines on the market ranges from 19% to 50%. has been shown,” it said.
Worse, once the drug is diverted from the official supply chain, patients have little guidance on how it should be used.
Francois Patuel, head of UNDOC’s research and development department, said: “If you want to get an antibiotic from the market, you can get it. It’s a matter of whether it’s suitable for use. We need to control it.” .
These deficiencies contribute to microbial and antimalarial resistance, he added.
The people who maintain this trade range from pharmaceutical company employees to street vendors and security guards.
However, although the Sahel region has been devastated by Islamist extremist violence, armed groups are less involved in this type of trafficking.
“Despite the frequently published involvement of terrorist groups and non-state armed groups in drug trafficking in the Sahel, the many documented cases indicate that it is limited.” said the report.
It also notes that confidence in the health care system and government will be eroded if those who choose these less effective treatments fail.
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