Nurses Raise the Alarm: Counterfeit Medicines Kill
International Council of Nurses Launches a Global Anti-counterfeit Campaign
Geneva, 11 May 2005 - Nurses worldwide are using the occasion of International Nurses Day to draw attention to the dramatic increase of counterfeit medicines in today’s global market. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in ten medicines sold worldwide is fake, with no medical effect whatsoever. In developing countries, up to 25% of the medicines used are counterfeit or substandard. Some estimates place the annual earnings from counterfeit medicines at over US $32 billion globally. 1
Counterfeiting is not only costly to consumers, it is a particularly serious area of crime because it puts the lives and well-being of patients at risk, leads to loss of confidence in the healthcare professions and in the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicines they prescribe.
Counterfeit medicines can kill. In 1992, 233 Bangladeshi children died after taking a paracetamol-based syrup that was tainted with antifreeze. In 1995, 2,500 children in Niger died after taking a fake meningitis vaccination. Of the one million deaths that occur from malaria annually, as many as 200,000 would be avoidable if the medicines available were effective, of good quality and used correctly.
“Patients and consumers are the primary victims of counterfeit medicines. In order to protect them from the harmful effects of counterfeit medicines it is necessary to provide them with appropriate information and education on the consequences of counterfeit medicines,” says Christine Hancock, President of the International Council of Nurses. “As frontline health care providers, nurses are key players in increased vigilance for counterfeit medicines and increased reporting of possible counterfeit drugs.”
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