Counterfeit AIDS drugs flood Zimbabwe

Counterfeit or counterfeit anti-AIDS drugs are being sold rampant in Zimbabwe, making the country's anti- pandemic work difficult, according to Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health.

In response to this situation, Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has called on HIV / AIDS patients to only buy treatment drugs at registered pharmacies, hospitals or treatment centers."Counterfeit AIDS drugs are one of the reasons that hinder treatment and make patients more expensive to treat," said Minister David Parirenyatwa.

According to Zimbabwe Radio, anti-AIDS drugs are illegal or mixed with other ingredients or falsified, completely ineffective.

The Herald said about 50,000 HIV-infected patients in Zimbabwe are receiving free treatment at government hospitals and more than 300,000 others need urgent treatment.

Currently, Zimbabwe's manufacturers of anti-HIV / AIDS drugs do not import enough materials to produce drugs, while the cost of importing these drugs is twice as expensive as domestically produced drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies claim that many drugs began to be scarce since July, when the government issued a halving order of prices for all goods and services.

This price reduction is aimed at curbing the inflation rate in Zimbabwe currently up to 7.634%. However, independent evaluations show that the real inflation figure has reached 25,000% and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts this figure will be 100,000% by the end of this year.

Critics blamed the situation on President Robert Mugabe's reform program, which began in 2000, confiscating white-owned commercial farms redistributed to blacks, and This broke Zimbabwe's agricultural-based economy.

Meanwhile, Mugabe blamed the West, saying that sanctions have crippled his country's economy.

T.VY