New study claims Africa gets substandard malaria drugs
A new report has claimed that many Africans are receiving substandard malaria drugs.
Researchers from the American Enterprise Institute say that 35 per cent of the 195 packs of malaria drugs tested did not contain high enough levels of active ingredients or did not dissolve properly, reports Reuters.
A third of the packs tested contained only one artemisinin-based drug and of these packs, 42 per cent failed the quality tests.
Dr Roger Bate, lead author in the study, said: "Substandard drugs not only endanger lives today, but also jeopardize future malaria treatment strategies by accelerating parasite resistance."
He said that the study shows that increasing access to "quality antimalarial drugs" in Africa is increasingly important.
The report estimated that substandard antimalarial drugs cause 200,000 avoidable deaths each year.
World Health Organisation figures say that 20 per cent of childhood deaths in Africa are the result of malaria and every 30 seconds a child dies from the disease on the continent.
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