In Africa there are many counterfit drugs, in fact, about 20-30% of the drugs in their market are fake according to this news report. These fake drugs come from places such as China and India and are becoming increasingly hard to monitor due to technological advances. In 2007 the World Health Organization did a survey and found that 20,000 people had lost their lives due to consuming fake medicines, especially those said to be for Malaria. Producers of these fake drugs do their best to imitate the brands that the Ugandan's already trust and often time the packaging even looks better than the real deal, making the people easily tricked. They are making lots of money selling these counterfit drugs.
This is a whole new epidemic that I have never heard of before. It makes me sick to think about. You think about how we have learned all about the different diseases in Africa and how many people are infected and then to think that people are trying to use them just to make money by selling them fake drugs. It's just so sad! It makes me wonder if we have things like this here in the US.
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