Leaders meet to tackle fake drugs crisis

Health leaders from seven African countries will meet in Togo on Friday to sign an agreement criminalising the trafficking of counterfeit drugs.

The meeting will take place in the capital city of Lomé and involve representatives from The Gambia, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Republic of the Congo, Togo, and Uganda. It was organised by UK charity the Brazzaville Foundation. 

The agreement hopes to clamp down on the sale of counterfeit drugs by imposing tougher penalties on traffickers and expanding legal frameworks for more rigorous enforcement. The Brazzaville Foundation hopes that other African countries will be encouraged to join the initiative. 

Fake and counterfeit medication is thought to kill tens of thousands of people in Africa every year. The WHO says that 42% of all fake medicines reported to them between 2013 and 2017 were from Africa and that in some African countries one in ten medical products are substandard or counterfeit. 

Fake drugs have been shown to have a particularly devastating impact on infant mortality rates. A 2015 study published in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene estimated that 122,000 children under the age of five died each year due to sub-standard anti-malaria drugs in sub-Saharan Africa. 

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