A dangerous number of people in Africa can take cancer drugs, which do not include important materials required to incorporate or reduce their disease.
It is related to searching with roots in a complex problem – how to regulate the medical back throughout the continent.
American and PAN-African Research Group published Find in this week Lancet Global HealthResearchers had collected some coverings, some coverings from a dozen hospitals and 25 pharmacies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameron.
He tested around 200 unique products in several brands. Around 17% – one in six – one in six was found to be incorrect active ingredient levels, including products used in major hospitals.
The patients who receive insufficient doses of thesis material can see their tumors growing, and possibly spread.
The past reports the same number of substandard antibiotics, antimalial and tuberculosis drugs, but this is the first time when a study has found high levels of high levels of false or faulty anticancer drugs in circulation.
“I was not surprised by these results,” said Lutz Hyde, a pharmacist from the University of Tulbingon in Germany, who has previously worked in the Works Health Ministry and spent research on substandard and false medicines in the last decade.
The Hyde was not part of the search group, but said that the report highlighted the problem not already measured.
“I am glad, finally, someone published a systemic report,” said Heer. “This is the first, real important systematic study of the region.”
Reasons need to be addressed, but it is not straightforward
“There are many potential reasons for poor quality products,” a senior researcher of the investigation told DW.
Those reasons may include defects in the manufacturing process due to defects or poor storage conditions in product decay. But some medicines are fake, and this product increases the risk of discrepancies between label and real medicine.
Spotting sub -standard and fake products can be difficult. Typically, a medical professional or the patient is performed only to perform a visual inspection – literally checking a label for discrepancies or tablets and syringes for the color different – to spot the wrong products.
But this is not a reliable way. In the study, barely a quarter of substandard products were identified through visual inspection. The laboratory test identified the rest.
Fixing the problem, Libeman said, it will require regulation and provide screening technologies and training where they need.
“If you can’t test it, you can’t regulate it,” he said. “It is difficult to handle and analyze cancer drugs because they are very toxic, and so many laboratories do not want to do so. And it is a main problem for the country of the sub-city country where we have worked, which are essential for safe handling of chemo drugs.”
Cancer treatment is affected not only
Nearly a decade ago, the World Health Organization found that one of the 10 drugs used in low and medium -income countries was subsandard or Fald. Independent research conducted since then has supported the figures, sometimes finding rates that are two times high.
“This may cause failure of treatment, adverse reactions, progression of the disease,” health economist Sachiko Ozwa told DW. Ozwa contributed to the investigation on anticancer drugs and has done separate research on other cases of faulty drugs.
“For the community, there is economic loss in case of ruined resources,” he said. “So countries can spend a lot of money on medicines that are not going to be effective.”
While high-ion countries can monitor supply chains and to identify suspected products and attract suspected products near stringent regulatory systems, the infrastructure to do so is far from normal in other.
In those places, poor access to inexpensive drugs often leads patients to low-regulated markets. Inadequate governance and regulation, as well as a shortage of monitoring and clinical equipment to test pharmaceuticals, are all contracting for the problem in Africa.
Ozwa said, “In a country with high -income, I think there is a very safe yoga chain where you know that manufacturers are vetoed, it has to undergo stringent regulatory procedures to get approval … it is tested more often,” said Ojwa.
The WHO told DW that after the findings of the report, it was working with four affected countries to resolve the problem.
“We are worried about finding an article that is highlighted. The article who is in touch with the national authorities of the four affected country and is receiving relevant data,” he said in a statement. “We expect to assess complete information to evaluate the situation, which often takes time and capacity. But we are committed to addressing researches working with respective countries and partners.”
The WHO improved its ongoing calls for countries to improve its regulatory structure “improved its regulatory structure to prevent the incidence of disorganized drugs including the settings of cancer programs.”
Prevention, detection and response
In 2017, the WHO review and the review of Felted Drugs offered three solutions based on prevention, detection and response.
Preventing the manufacture and sales of those drugs is the primary preventive measure, but where defective products make it in the market, monitoring and reaction programs can spoil quality drugs by reaching patients.
But regulatory improvement by experts and officials takes time to sight. More immediate solutions are being developed as better screening technologies.
Liberman is working on a “paper lab” – a type of test that can be used by trained professionals to test the quality of a product prayer to a patient who is administrator for a patient. Other laboratory technologies are subject to development.
A comfortable point is that a significant proportion of the drug broadcast in medical facilities in four African countries was defective, the testing of most products meets the required standards.
,[With] Two-thirds of suppliers, all products [were] According to good quality, good quality suppliers, “Hyde said.” But some of them have a suspected high number of really unsuccessful samples. ,
Edited by: Deric Williams
