Fake Medicine Causes Half a Million Deaths in Africa

Half a million people die in sub-Saharan Africa every year from the use of fake or low-quality medicines. Last June, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global alert reporting four contaminated children’s health products from India.

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Although the case of cough syrup has been the best known, others also cause serious damage to the health of the African population, mainly sub-Saharan Africans, who have the greatest access to low-quality and affordable medicines.

From defective disinfectant gel to fake malaria pills, they are part of an illicit trade that has expanded and normalized, especially since the pandemic greatly increased the need to import medicines to the African continent.

It was the mass death of Gambian children in 2022 that set off alarm bells. According to the report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), substandard or fake medicines, such as smuggled children’s cough syrup, kill about half a million sub-Saharan Africans.

The report explains how the nations of the Sahel, a 6,000-kilometer-wide strip that stretches from the Red Sea to the Atlantic and where 300 million people live, are joining forces to stop fake medicines at their borders and hold those responsible accountable.

“The disparity between supply and demand for medical care is at least partly covered by illegally obtained medicines”, the report notes, explaining that street markets and unauthorized vendors, especially in rural or conflict-affected areas, are sometimes the only sources of medicines and pharmaceuticals.

Fake antimalarial drugs kill 267,000 people annually in the Sahel, while some 170,000 children die each year from unauthorized antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia.

Treatment of people who have used fake or low-quality pharmaceutical products for the treatment of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa costs up to 44.7 million dollars a year, according to estimates by the World Health Organization.

Corruption is one of the main reasons why this trade is allowed to flourish. It is estimated that about 40 percent of these products, reported in Sahelian countries between 2013 and 2021, land in legal supply chains, the report claims.

These medicines usually come from exporting countries such as Belgium, China, France, and India, and some reach the shelves of certified pharmacies.

"Transactional organized crime takes advantage of national regulatory and oversight loopholes to sell substandard or counterfeit medical products," said Bureau executive director Ghada Waly.