TB MENACE: AFTER NEW ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT STRAINS THE FINDING OF MASS PRODUCTION OF FAKE TB DRUGS THREATENS WORLD HEALTH

 TB MENACE: AFTER NEW ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT STRAINS THE FINDING OF MASS PRODUCTION OF FAKE TB DRUGS THREATENS WORLD HEALTH

courtesy Getty/AFP 

In the African subcontinent and India, but also in many other third world countries, increasingly  stockpiles of medicine to treat Tubercolosis are being found to be counterfeit.  This is causing a dangerous rise in the incidence of antibiotic resistant strains.

The findings come after a long term investigation in the stockpiles of private pharmacies in 17 countries.  People were asked to purchase the two chemical compounds isonizid and rifampicin, two of the frontline antibiotics in the treatment of TB, from private pharmacies.

Chromatography of the acquired pharmaceuticals revealed startling findings about their chemical signature and concentration of the active ingredients.

They were also tested for disintegration, an important factor in determining purity, since the rate tells how long and at what temperature and in how much water, their hydrophilic qualities as it may, they dissolve in the human body.

Of the 713 samples, 9.1 failed the standards for quality control.  Almost half of the failed samples had zero active ingredients, making them even more dangerous for exacerbation of drug resistance.  

The problem with counterfeit drugs is that they are produced by seemingly legitimate companies, but they are then intercepted and cut.  'Cutting' them produces a compound that is insufficient in treating the strain and therefore ends up strenghtening the strain and rendering it inure to the compound itself.

In Africa the rate of failure of the investigated chemicals was almost 17%. 

Nearly nine million people in the world have contracted TB, including almost half a million with the drug resistant strain of the disease.

Source: Dawn.com 2.5.13