Résumé
Titre : Falsified drugs in the democratic republic of the Congo : still a long way to go
Auteur (s) : Norbert M. Lunsevila, Staline-Fidèle E. Ndondoboni, Aristote B. Buya
Abstract :
Falsified medicines pose a significant threat to public health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The use of falsified pharmaceuticals can lead to poisoning, untreated illness, premature death, and treatment failure. They can also hinder the achievement of sustainable development goals. Particularly in the DRC, the level of knowledge about this problem is low. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the extent of the problem of substandard and falsified medicines in the country. It is based on a retrospective review of drug alerts and scientific publications, based on a search of the Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed databases and the Congolese Ministry of Health alerts issued between 2000 and 2021. It was found that four classes of drugs, namely: antimalarials, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and antivirals, were the most falsified/ counterfeited in the studies conducted. This highlights the need to overcome obstacles in the fight against falsified medicines in the DRC, including a lack of reliable and scalable technology to detect counterfeits before they reach patients, lack of consensus on definitions, weak national leadership and accountability systems, and manufacturing and regulatory challenges.
Editeur : RECOSH
Télécharger l'article complet ici