Fake drugs threaten public health

Saturday, August 8, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 15)

By Rebecca Kwei
The Director of the United States Pharmacopoeia Drug Quality and Information Programme, Dr Patrick Lukulay, has stressed the need for more public education on the effects of substandard and counterfeit medicines to public health.
He said people should be made to understand that medicine quality was not a luxury but rather a matter of life and death.
Dr Lukulay said this at a plenary session of the 10th Commonwealth Pharmacists Association Conference and the 74th Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana Annual Conference, which is taking place in Accra.
Pharmacists from across the globe are taking part in the meeting, which is on the theme, “Managing threats and crisis: The vital role of pharmacy in an unstable world”.
Dr Lukulay said counterfeit and substandard medicines were a threat to public health and economic development and a burden on national health care.
He noted that every counterfeit or substandard medicine one takes undermines investments in healthcare systems, erodes patient trust in conventional medicines and people go untreated leading to prolonged illness or death.
Additionally, he said the wrong chemical in a medicine could lead to death while sub-potent treatment causes resistance and treatment failure.
Dr Lukulay further called for robust legislation and regulation and proactive citizens who would serve as community watch or whistleblowers in the fight against counterfeit or substandard medicines.
Speaking on the topic, “Are we safe? The threats confronting global health”, the Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, Dr Kenneth Attafuah, said the safety and well-being of humanity was endangered by factors that were more social and political than biological and medical.
He said the health of people particularly in growing democracies was threatened every day by nefarious activities of people such as crooked politicians, corrupt public officials and common criminals than by viruses, germs and pathogens.
Dr Attafuah said the bulk of human suffering and misery derived not from disease but from ill-treatment of mankind by mankind.
“Around the world and throughout history, wars, coups d’etat, civil unrest, post-election violence and abuse of power and authority have had debilitating effects on individuals and communities,” he said.
He noted that the continued existence of many forms of diseases such as malaria, kwashiorkor and guinea worm was a direct reflection of political and economic choices made by world leaders.
To better ensure the health and well-being people, Dr Attafuah said it was imperative that “we improve the living conditions of people; reduce health inequities through action on the social determinants and health; and combat all the 17 forms of discrimination prohibited by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and related conventions and protocols”.
Additionally, he said, it was important to tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources.
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr Alex Dodoo, said the meeting would afford pharmacists the opportunity to discuss how they could provide solutions to deal with threats and crisis confronting the modern world.