Counterfeit medicine proving deadly in Africa

Parts of Africa are seeing a dangerous rise in the amount of counterfeit medication – for diseases such as malaria – coming largely from Asia.According toThe Guardian, a combination of lax regulatory oversight in China and sub-par border security in Africa has led to a wave of at-best ineffective medicines making their way to malaria patients across the continent.”What we are told is this, if someone wants to counterfeit a drug, they just take the package to China and they can make it in thousands,” David Nahamya – chief drug inspector for the Ugandan national drug authority – told The Guardian. “You have seen how they make it there. They can copy anything.”A recent story by The Guardian showed that nearly a third of all malaria drugs making their ways to Uganda and Tanzania are illicit, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to China’s burgeoning trade market with African nations.The Atlanta Black Starpointed out that even China’s “CCTV” has made its way to the neighboring land mass, along with the newspaper The China Daily.For their part,China has refutedthe claims made by The Guardian, pointing out their contributions to Africa’s fight against malaria.

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