PSoTD

Just a horrible thing to do.

HIV positive patients in Zimbabwe face more risks amid reports that unlicensed drug dealers are flooding the market with counterfeit ARVs that could do more harm than good to the health of consumers.

The country’s medicines regulatory body has warned that patients on ARVs should avoid buying the drugs from the parallel market were the drugs are cheaper but also fake. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) said this week that individual drug importers had flooded the local market with cheap counterfeit ARVs, which they are selling from unlicensed locations such as flea markets and hair salons.

MCAZ fears the drugs could expose HIV positive people to health hazards as counterfeit medicines usually cause drug resistance.

“This is a dangerous practice because the medicines may have been subjected to inappropriate and hazardous storage conditions, thus affecting the quality and effectiveness of the medicine.

“Such medicines may be counterfeited, adulterated and contaminated, thus rendering them ineffective and sometimes dangerous”, said the MCAZ in a statement.

Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said his Ministry was fighting to stamp out the unauthorised drugs market, estimated to be worth billions.

“We are aware that people may want to make capital out of it especially in light of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,” said Parirenyatwa.

Medical experts say the collapse of the government health system has created a vacuum in which a parallel market for drugs has thrived. They warned that un-prescribed ARVs would result in drug resistance.

Sixty-two thousand HIV–positive people are on the government’s treatment programme, but this figure is expected to double by the end of this year.

But over 700 000 Zimbabweans are estimated to be in urgent need of ARV therapy.