Malaria is at risk of outbreaks in Africa due to counterfeit drugs

Experts have recently said that counterfeit and poor-quality antimalarial drugs are negatively impacting efforts to control the disease in Africa and may threaten the lives of millions of people.

Counterfeit drugs can harm patients - infected with malaria parasites, leading to drug resistance, reported Malaria .

According to WHO every year, malaria kills more than 800,000 people worldwide.

Investigators said most of the anti-malarial drugs came from China. In 2006, police arrested a suspect producing and consuming malaria medicine in Yunnan. The suspect is transporting 2,880,000 malaria tablets enough to treat 250,000 people.

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital and Oxford University have examined and found fake and poor quality antimalarial drugs on the market in 11 African countries from 2002 to 2010.

They said that some counterfeit drugs contain toxin ingredients banned in the pharmaceutical industry. Initially it alleviates the symptoms of malaria but does not work to treat this disease.

Studies show that some components of the drug may cause serious side effects. In particular, patients can take other drugs such as anti-retrovirals used to treat HIV.

After a period of ingestion of malaria medication, malaria parasites can develop resistance to the drugs being used to destroy it. This has happened in the past with drugs like chloroquine and mefloquine.

Researchers warn that counterfeit drugs may also counteract the effect of artemisinin, one of the most effective drugs currently being used to treat malaria.

They found that in counterfeit drugs containing a small amount of artemisinin was just to pass the authorities' tests. However, those low-artemisinin-containing drugs are not strong enough to kill malaria parasites, otherwise they develop resistance to this substance.

Dr. Paul Newton, the lead researcher, called on African governments to come up with urgent measures to prevent fake malaria drugs that are circulating in the region. Without timely action, the situation will become more serious, which can affect the health of millions of people, especially children and pregnant women.

"The huge investment in malaria prevention is wasteful if patients are not effectively treated because they accidentally use fake and poor quality antimalarial drugs," he added.