A third of malaria drugs used around the world to stem the spread of the disease are counterfeit, data suggests.

Researchers who looked at 1,500 samples of seven malaria drugs from seven countries in South East Asia say poor-quality and fake tablets are causing drug resistance and treatment failure.

Data from 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including over 2,500 drug samples showed similar results.

Experts say The Lancet Infectious Diseases research is a "wake-up call".

AHMEDABAD: Between January and April last year, there were close to 550 malaria cases in the city. This year during the same period there are more than 1,600 malaria cases - a number that is alarming considering the fact that these cases have surfaced way ahead before the onset of monsoons. The state health department and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ( AMC) have now sought help from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Delhi and National Institute of Malaria Research in Nadiad to tackle the problem.

A third of malaria drugs used around the world to keep the spread of the disease at bay are counterfeit, recent data has suggested. According to a study published in the reputed journal the Lancet, around 7 per cent of the drugs tested in India was found to be of poor quality with many being fake.

Researchers who looked at 1,500 samples of seven malaria drugs from seven countries in Southeast Asia said poor-quality and fake tablets are causing drug resistance and treatment failure. “Much of this morbidity and mortality could be avoided if drugs available to patients were efficacious, high quality, and used correctly,” said the Lancet.

Fake and substandard malaria drugs are a growing threat to efforts to beat back the disease, a new study sponsored by the federal government has concluded.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health analyzed 27 sets of tests of antimalaria drugs purchased in Southeast Asia and Africa between 1999 and 2010. The researchers published the results on Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Tokyo:Over one in three anti-malarial drugs sold in southeast Asia are fake while a third of samples in sub-Saharan Africa failed chemical testing for containing too much or too little of the active ingredient, potentially encouraging drug resistance. Around 7% of the drugs tested in India was found to be of poor quality with many being fake.
A Lancet study to be announced on Tuesday says 3.3 billion people are at risk of malaria, which is endemic in 106 countries. Every year, between 655,000 and 1.2 million people die from Plasmodium falciparum infection.

GLOBAL health campaigns like grand goals. On January 30th Bill Gates joined the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), 13 drug-company executives and others in pledging to eradicate or control by 2020 ten of the world’s nastiest diseases, which afflict more than a billion people. Guinea worm, sleeping sickness, bilharzia (which doctors call schistosomiasis) and the others rot tissue and cripple the organs. Even if they do not kill, they stunt children and sap adults’ energies.