IPS Examines Sales Of Counterfeit Malaria, TB Drugs In Cameroon

“In markets and on roadsides across Yaoundé, [Cameroon,] fake and illegal drugs are stacked on wooden racks and tables, openly displayed for sale,” and though “[t]rading in these drugs is illegal … [t]hey are available as a result of weak regulation, poor health services and high medical costs,” Inter Press Service reports. “There are no precise figures on the quantity of illegal drugs entering Cameroon, but up to 70 percent of drugs sold here are traded on the black market, says Christophe Ampoam of the National Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Cameroon,” the news service writes. IPS includes comments from several experts and a vendor of illicit drugs. The news service notes the WHO “estimates that worldwide 200,000 deaths per annum could be prevented if people did not use counterfeit drugs,” and “[a]ccording to [an] International Policy Network report, fake tuberculosis and malaria drugs alone are estimated to kill 700,000 people globally each year” (Nfor, 9/5).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.