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Counterfeit medicines should also be targeted
2007-12-16 15:34:06
By Correspondent Theonestina Kaiza-Boshe
On November 30th this year, the ITV audience was treated to yet another episode of a bulldozer crushing an assortment of counterfeit goods, including big brand names like Sony TV sets and hand hoes, which were subsequently to be buried.
This was the second time in recent weeks that an importer of counterfeit goods had been ordered by the Fair Competition Commission (FCC) to destroy his own imported goods at his own cost after they were found to be counterfeit on arrival at Dar port.
Five million shillings fine is considered light
The value of the contraband as reported in the press was Tshs. 45 million, and destroying the contraband wares was not the end of the punishment. The offence attracts a five million shillings fine and a two-year jail sentence.
Although a five-million shilling fine is generally considered to be pretty light, considering the gravity of the offence, people interviewed by the television station following the destruction of the counterfeit goods expressed satisfaction over the punishment and commended the government for its fight against counterfeits.
However, there was one dissenting voice to reckon with. This was the voice of a regular scavenger at the dumpsite.
The young man was saddened by the act of destroying the counterfeit wares, as to him this meant he could not make money from the contraband as he would ordinarily do with any recoverable junk disposed off at the dumpsite.
What was most interesting was the fact that the young man had the audacity to make his illicit business known and even ask the government to consider his plight.
Scavengers unaware of health risks
Like many a poor Tanzanian like him, scavengers, as well as non-scavengers; the young man seemed to be unaware and unconcerned about the dangers of condemned goods. He only saw contraband as a source of much needed income.
Driven by poverty and ignorance, many unemployed youth in Dar see the condemned goods as resources to trade in.
While the very poor scavenge the waste dumps to secure the goods, the better-off obtain theirs from the Kariakoo shops to hawk on the streets of Dar es Salaam and beyond.
These machingas, as they are popularly known in Dar, see counterfeit trade as a savior to be embraced and not as an evil to be banished!
Paradoxically, it is the average Tanzanian and the poor that are most negatively affected by the counterfeit business. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than is with counterfeit medicines.
Take the case of the scavenger mentioned earlier, for example. If by bad luck the young man develops a fever following a nail prick sustained while rummaging through heaps of rubbish and has to seek medical attention, he most probably would not go to a reputable hospital for treatment. He would not have the money to pay for the service.
He would probably settle for some cheap private health facility which would most likely be using counterfeit medicines and equipment.
In the worst case scenario, the young man might not even be able to afford that, in which case he might have to go straight to a “Dawa Baridi” pharmaceutical store. The latter, too, most likely sell him counterfeit medication.
If indeed the scavenger had been infected by tetanus bacteria, not getting proper medication may mean death. This might sound like painting a grim picture of an otherwise simple common occurrence, but this is happening in Dar es Salaam, elsewhere in Tanzania, and around the world. It is reality!
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a counterfeit as a product that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to source and/or identity, and includes products with the correct ingredients, wrong ingredients, incorrect quantities of active ingredients, and/or products with fake packaging.
There have also been cases of counterfeits with toxic ingredients. According to the WHO, the categories of medicines most frequently counterfeited are antibiotics, antihistamines, hormones and steroids.
Counterfeit medicines constitute over 10 per cent of global medicines
Counterfeit medicines represent a huge public health challenge. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can come across counterfeit medicines.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that counterfeits make up more than 10 per cent of the global medicines market and are present in both industrialized and developing countries, with up to 25 per cent of the medicines consumed in poor countries being fake. This means you cannot really be sure of running away from the problem by buying medicine from abroad.
What is perhaps most disturbing from the available facts and figures on counterfeit medicines is their common availability in developing countries like Tanzania for the treatment of life-threatening conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and the inability of those countries to detect these killers in good time.
The problem is hard to escape at personal level
Another disturbing fact is that counterfeit medicines are a problem that is hard to escape from at personal level in terms of choice. Unlike other consumer goods, one cannot effectively avoid taking medicine.
This is because one doesn`t normally take medicine out of choice as is the case with other consumer goods; and lots of times the choice is between taking medicine, or dying.
Also unfortunate is the fact that, unlike counterfeit TV sets, for instance, that can be spotted by a naked and untrained eye at a distance, identification of counterfeit medicines requires specialized equipment, high technology, and highly trained personnel.
Moreover, unlike most other consumer goods, counterfeit medicines have direct negative impact on man`s health and, in many cases, their impacts are life threatening.
Theonestina Kaiza-Boshe is a consultant and trainer on sustainable development based in Dar es Salaam
tkaiza@gmail.com
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