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Study finds Africans get substandard malaria drugs

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Many Africans are getting substandard malaria drugs, with more than a third of the pills tested failing quality tests, according to a report published on Tuesday..antimalarial drugs sold in Africa have failed quality tests.The study of drugs bought in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda shows that 35 per cent contained too little active ingredient or failed to dissolve, rendering them ineffective. Another third of treatments also belonged to a class of drugs that the World Health Organisation (WHO) wants to be banned because they can cause the malaria parasite to develop resistance.The findings suggest that hundreds of thousands of lives are being put at risk and indicate that drug counterfeiting is to blame. Only 40 of 74 manufacturers of artimisinin drugs have agreed to stop making monotherapies, and 42 countries, including 18 in sub-Saharan Africa, still allow these drugs to be sold.The vast majority of malaria deaths occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, where malaria also presents major obstacles to social and economic development. Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than US$ 12 billion every year in lost GDP, even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than a million deaths. Around 90% of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children. Malaria is Africa's leading cause of under-five mortality (20%) and constitutes 10% of the continent's overall disease burden. It accounts for 40% of public health expenditure, 30-50% of inpatient admissions, and up to 50% of outpatient visits in areas with high malaria transmissions.
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