By REBECCA MUSHOTA and MILDRED KATONGO  –
ZAMBIA is among the countries named in a World Health Organisation (WHO) report as a consumer of fake medicine.
The WHO global surveillance and monitoring system for sub-standard and falsified medical products report says that 10 per cent of the low and middle-income countries consumed drugs that were below standard, falsely labelled or simply fake.
The  report says the affected countries are collectively spending US$30.5 billion on the fake drugs.
It says the countries identified are those in which fake medicines have been discovered and reported, saying that there is a high possibility that even countries not recorded are also affected by the same problem.
Zambia has been identified together with other countries like Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most of the fake drugs fall into the category of lifestyle medicines, pain killers, antibiotics and the anti-retrovirals (ARVs) used to treat HIV-AIDS.
The report says that the problem is more apparent in low-to-middle-income countries because suppliers of fake medicine are taking advantage of the huge amounts of money that the countries spend on medication and their weaker systems.
Among the consequences of consuming fake drugs are prolonged illnesses, drug resistance and death.
It also undermines the efforts of the medical staff and costs governments billions of dollars.
Fake drugs are finding themselves in pharmacies as well as medical stores globally because of the complex supply chain which involves different countries and companies providing ingredients, manufacturing and distributing medicine.
The fake drugs could be manufactured in Asia but packaged in Africa or vice-versa.
The report says that constrained access to medicine and weak technical capacity, as well as poor governance are the main reasons fake drug manufacturers and distributors were taking advantage of these countries.
The report says it was important for countries to coordinate responses and improve  citizens’ sensitisation on how to identify fake drugs whose packaging usually has misspellings and grammatical errors.
Meanwhile, police have arrested six people, including two pharmacy owners, for selling HIV and malaria test kits in Lusaka donated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
US Embassy Public Affairs Officer Janet Deutsch said the six were arrested after a five-month-long investigation by the USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the local law-enforcement agencies.
Ms Deutsch said in a statement that in the weeks prior to the arrests, USAID carried out joint investigative work with the Zambia National Taskforce (ZNTF) which comprised the Drug-Enforcement Commission (DEC), Zambia Medical Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA), Ministry of Health (MOH) and police.
She said the arrests followed a proactive initiative that USAID began in June to have officials visiting pharmacies across the city to determine if US-funded products were being sold for profit.
Ms Deutsch said during those visits, USAID identified individuals involved in the illegal sale of stolen HIV and malaria test kits which were later confirmed to have been provided through the US Government and The Global Fund programmes.
“USAID shared evidence from its investigation with members of the ZNTF, triggering joint investigative efforts that led the ZNTF, assisted by USAID OIG, to detain 13 individuals involved in illegally selling the test kits and later six were arrested,” she said.
USAID’s Washington-based OIG Special Agent in Charge overseeing global health investigations Jonathan Schofield said they coordinated closely with international partners to thwart the work of criminals who preyed upon the US Government-supported to the global health supply chain.