The Nation Newspaper

Tag: WHO

  • One in 10 drugs sold in developing countries fake, says WHO

    One in 10 drugs sold in developing countries fake, says WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO ) has said that one in 10 drugs sold in developing countries is fake or substandard.

    This has led to tens of thousands of deaths, many of them of African children given ineffective treatments for pneumonia and malaria.

    In a major review of the problem, the WHO described bogus drugs were a growing threat as increased pharmaceutical trade, including Internet sales, open the door to sometimes toxic products.

    Some pharmacists in Africa, for example, say that they are compelled to buy from the cheapest but not necessarily the safest suppliers to compete with illegal street traders.

    Fake drugs could contain incorrect doses, wrong ingredients or no active ingredients at all.

    At the same time, a worrying number of authorised medicines fail to meet quality standards because of improper storage and other issues.

    The scale of the problem is hard to quantify precisely, but a WHO pooled analysis of 100 studies from 2007 to 2016, covering more than 48,000 samples, showed 10.5 per cent of drugs in low and middle-income countries to be fake or substandard.

    With pharmaceutical sales in such countries running at nearly $300 billion a year, this implies that trade in fake medicines is a 30 billion dollar-business.

    The human toll is enormous, according to a team from the University of Edinburgh, which was commissioned by the WHO to study the impact of fake drugs.

    They calculated that up to 72,000 deaths from childhood pneumonia could be attributed to the use of antibiotics with reduced activity, increasing to 169,000 deaths if drugs had no activity.

    Poor-quality drugs also add to the danger of antibiotic resistance, threatening to undermine the power of life-saving medicines in future.

    Another group from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that 116,000 additional deaths from malaria could be caused each year by bad anti-malarials in sub-Saharan Africa.

    “Substandard and falsified medicines particularly affect the most vulnerable communities,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.

    “This is unacceptable.”

    Since 2013 the WHO has received 1,500 reports of fake and low-quality products, with anti-malarials and antibiotics the most commonly reported categories.

    However, the problem extends to everything from cancer drugs to contraceptive pills.

    Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 42 per cent of all the reports.

  • Beating Breast Cancer in Bangladesh

    Beating Breast Cancer in Bangladesh

    By Sadi Mohammad Shahnewaz for The Daily Star

    Clutching her baby, breast cancer survivor Basanti Majumder speaks of a pain in her left breast and fears her cancer may have returned. She stares briefly at the floor and giggles nervously. “I’m not going to the doctor now for financial reasons,” she says.

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates approximately 1.38 million new breast cancer cases each year, resulting in 458,000 deaths annually.

    Unsurprisingly, mortality rates are much higher in the developing world where women often only seek medical assistance and diagnosis in the late stages—unaware of what is wrong and reluctant to shell out on medical costs. In Bangladesh, poor access to medical facilities, stigmatisation and a lack of knowledge about the disease mean that a mere 11 percent of Bangladeshi women receive diagnosis in the early stages.Cancer

    Like in much of the world, breast cancer is the most common cancer amongst Bangladesh’s female population, with 32.8 percent of female cancer patients suffering from this strain of the disease. The nation’s public medical services—overstretched and underfunded—simply cannot provide the care required by breast cancer sufferers.

    Yet encouragingly, one organisation has taken up the plight of these suffering women. Active since 2007, Amader Gram Breast Care e-Health Centre aims to provide expert medical assistance to any woman, regardless of her economic or social situation. Having originally set up in the Khulna region of Bangladesh, the organisation now boasts one other centre in the sub-district of Rampal in the Bagerhat region, as well as a small coordination office in Dhaka.

    Reza Salim, founder and director of the organisation, started off working in ICT as a government communication consultant. “I have worked primarily in ICT, and never initially planned to work on cancer,” he explains. Yet whilst working on computer literacy programmes in rural communities, Salim and his team were alarmed at the vast number of women turning up at the centre complaining of chest pains. “We also started taking small initiatives to help our localisation on the aspect of non-communicable diseases, as we realised that it was highly neglected and unattended,” says Salim.

    And now in 2017, ten years after Salim created Amader Gram Breast e-Health Centre and staffed with 13 dedicated medical employees, the organisation receives anywhere between 90 to 150 new patients with breast-related health issues a month. In 2016, the organisation treated 1,968 woman and followed up with 426 of them. Salim is keen that women undergoing treatment at the centre receive all the required care in the same place—something that is a rarity in state run hospitals where patients are sent traipsing from one pricey medical centre to another.

    “A big step towards treating cancer is to actually know about the prevalence of the disease and take action accordingly,” says Salim. In this conservative nation, little is known about breast cancer and women are reluctant to come forward and discuss any health concerns they may have. In order to overcome such obstacles Salim has several female physicians at the centres to help female patients feel more at ease.

    Aware of the economic hardship many of the patients live, Amader Gram Breast Care e-Health Centre’s prices are adapted to their patients economic situation. A diagnostic biopsy costs Tk 12,000 (US$ 143) and a chemotherapy session around Tk 1,000 (US$ 12). The organisation even provides all breast cancer patients with a free mobile phone so that they can liaise with medics throughout their treatment.

    Breast cancer survivor Mahmunda believes that she owes her life to the organisation. “When I first started noticing lumps around my breasts, I started taking homeopathic medicine. When more of them appeared, I came to this facility where Mozammel sir [a surgeon at the Khulna campus] redirected me to the correct treatment. Now, by grace of God, I am doing fine.”

    Keen to put a range of pedagogical tools at the disposal of patients and their families, the organisation has also drawn up a series of guidelines for effective palliative care for those women who arrive at the centre too late and for whom the outcome is not so positive.

    The team has even created an app called “AG Palliative Care” to help family members in remote areas best prepare for their loved ones’ last few moments. The app uses a short questionnaire in which patients or their loved ones can report symptoms. The information is then sent over to a centralised computer system and read over by a doctor who then suggests the best course of action for patients.

    Looking towards the future the organisation intends to expand its services across the entirety of Bangladesh, hoping to save and educate as many women as possible. For the time being it is clear that Amader Gram Breast e-Health Centre has proven an exemplary stepping stone in providing breast cancer treatment to some of the countries most vulnerable women.

    http://agbreastcare.org/

  • Diabetes cases on the rise, warns WHO

    THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 as the world marks this year’s World Diabetes Day (WDD).

    WHO lamented that the global prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 years of age has increased from 4.7 per cent in 1980 to 8.5 per cent in 2014.

    Experts are canvassing for routine diabetes screening in hospitals across the country.

    Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

    Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Hyperglycaemia or raised blood sugar is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and it overtime leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.

    This year’s theme is: ‘Women and diabetes – our right to a healthy future’. It is a campaign to promote the importance of affordable and equitable access for women at risk or those living with diabetes to receive the essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they require in achieving optimal diabetes outcomes and strengthening their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes.

    According to WHO, diabetes prevalence has been rising more rapidly in middle- and low-income countries, including Nigeria.

    It added that diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.

    In 2015, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose in 2012. Almost half of all deaths attributable to high blood glucose occur before the age of 70 years. WHO projects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030.

    A healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2-diabetes. Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications.

    A Senior Lecturer/Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist of the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Lagos/Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ifedayo Odeniyi, said it had become expedient that persons living with diabetes know their status in order to seek treatment promptly. He spoke at a capacity-building workshop on diabetes organised by Sanofi Aventis Pharma Nigeria to mark this year’s WDD.

    Odeniyi said there was need for the introduction of routine diabetes screening in public hospitals in the country.

    And having diabetes is not a death sentence, and those living with the condition can live normal life and not subject to a diabetes diet, he said.

    “The idea of a diabetes diet was a myth. We have often heard that the diet of diabetics should be beans and unripe plantain, but that is not correct. There is no special diet for diabetes, and there is nothing like diabetes diet. A diabetic can eat everything. Diabetes is not a death sentence and not as deadly as it is often being portrayed. A lot of people have been put in bondage and sentenced to a life of beans and unripe plantain.

    According to WHO, simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes.

    “To help prevent type 2 diabetes and its complications, the global body said people should achieve and maintain healthy body weight; be physically active – at least 30 minutes of regular, moderate-intensity activity on most days. More activity is required for weight control; eat a healthy diet, avoiding sugar and saturated fats intake; and avoid tobacco use – smoking increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Early diagnosis can be accomplished through relatively inexpensive testing of blood sugar,” it said.

  • WHO: Stop giving antibiotics to healthy animals

    WHO: Stop giving antibiotics to healthy animals

    The food industry should stop using antibiotics to boost growth in healthy animals, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says in new guidelines that are meant to curb human resistance to such medicines.

    In some countries, 80 per cent of all the used antibiotics end up as growth-promotion medication in the animal sector, according to the Geneva-based UN health agency.

    The over-medication of animals and humans further raises the existing threat of antibiotic resistance, which has advanced to a stage where there are no more medications to treat some types of bacteria.

    “A lack of effective antibiotics is as serious a security threat as a sudden and deadly disease outbreak,’’ WHO Chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said on Tuesday.

    In its updated guidelines, WHO says that animals that are reared for their meat, milk or eggs should only be treated with antibiotics if they are actually sick, or if there is an infection among their herd, flock or shoal.

    Instead of medicines, farmers should prevent disease by improving hygiene, through vaccinations, WHO recommends.

    According to research published in The Lancet Planetary Health on Tuesday, restricting antibiotic use in food-producing animals reduced resistant bacteria in these animals by up to 39 per cent.

    “The volume of antibiotics used in animals is continuing to increase worldwide, driven by a growing demand for foods of animal origin, often produced through intensive animal husbandry,’’said Kazuaki Miyagishima, WHO’s Chief Food Safety Expert.

    However, some countries have taken countermeasures.

    The EU banned antibiotics for growth promotion in 2006.

    Read Also: WHO asses cholera outbreak in Maiduguri

  • 15 deaths, 864 cases recorded from measles in Gombe

    15 deaths, 864 cases recorded from measles in Gombe

    15 deaths and 864-suspected cases have been recorded as a result of measles outbreak in Gombe State from January this year to date. 

     The Cluster Consultant for World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr.  Raymond Dankoli disclosed this during a parley with journalists in Gombe on Thursday. 

    The Consultant explained that the outbreak was recorded in seven out of the 11 local government areas of the state, with Gombe local government area having the highest number of suspected measles infection with 107 reported cases. 

    The meeting was organised by the state Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) as part of a sensitization campaign against the 2017 Measles Campaign Vaccination scheduled for November 30 to December 15.

     Dankoli said the agency had learnt from the past mistake in a similar exercise held in 2015 which led to a below par performance of 84% and it is now poised to conduct a successful exercise with an eye on achieving 95% and above coverage. 

     He said the agency had already taken proactive steps in response to the disease outbreak by making available drugs for treating the disease, with trained staff carrying out surveillance and to report new cases for prompt action. 

     Dankoli said this year’s vaccination exercise would target children from 9 – 59 months, stressing that every child is expected to receive treatment irrespective of the child’s immunization status. 

     “The 2015 experience was the worst. We want to make that of 2017 better. All measles deaths are preventable,” he said. 

     The WHO Cluster Consultant said it had become necessary to partner with the media in order to properly sensitise the public since the success of the campaign would be measured by the number of children to be vaccinated.

    Dankoli said the agency is reaching out to relevant stakeholders like traditional, religious and community leaders for proper enlightenment of the citizenry in order to guard against the pitfall of the previous exercise

    He said people should the disregard the controversy surrounding previous exercises and the recent monkey pox outbreak, assuring that the agency would not fold its arms to allow harmful products to be administered to the people. 

    The WHO consultant urged parents to make available their wards for vaccination once the exercise commences, stressing that donor agencies had spent billions of Naira to supply the vaccines.

    Earlier, Musa Ibrahim, Deputy Director of Immunization at the GSPHCDA, said the agency was embarking on aggressive advocacy and dialogue to ascertain why communities are refusing vaccination because of the poor coverage of 2015.

    He applauded the state government’s prompt response by being the first state in the country to release it’s counterparts fund for the campaign against measles. 

    Ibrahim disclosed that materials for the vaccination exercise have started arriving the state. 

    He said the exercise would be staggered across the state in two for proper supervision.

    He urged parents to ensure the safekeeping of vaccination cards to be issued during the exercise, as it would be used for the purpose of evaluation survey.

  • 200,000 living with HIV in Oyo – NACA DG

    200,000 living with HIV in Oyo – NACA DG

    Dr Sani Aliyu, Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS ( NACA ) says an estimated 200,000 people are living with HIV in Oyo State.

    He made the disclosure on Tuesday in Ibadan during a courtesy call on Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State at the executive council chamber of the governor’s office.

    The delegation led by Aliyu, included representatives of relevant international donor and funding agencies like WHO.

    Aliyu stated that only 16,000 out of the estimated 200, 000 persons living with HIV in the state are currently on treatment.

    “We have a gap between the number of infected persons and those on treatment. We have a gap between infected pregnant women and those receiving treatment.

    “We also have issues with the number of new infections recorded,’’ he said.

    The NACA boss stated that 10, 000 pregnant women in Oyo State are living with HIV, adding that about 50 people contact HIV in the state on a daily basis.

    He stated that the state has a considerable figure in terms of new infections, commending the state government for running one of the best programmes on HIV/AIDS.

    Aliyu said that there are 1,060,000 people living with HIV in Nigeria, out of which only five percent were currently on treatment courtesy of the Nigerian government.

    The NACA boss stated that about one million Nigerians are currently on treatment on the bills of the international donor agencies.

    He said that NACA had proposed to the state government to contribute 0.5 or One percent of their federal allocation towards HIV/AIDS.

    Aliyu stated that such contribution by state governments would allow the states to put another 50 per cent of infected persons on treatment.

    “For instance, we have 16,000 already on treatment. If the state can put 0.5 percent of the allocation, the state will be able to put 8,000 on treatment,’’ he said.

    He assured the governor that they are willing to work with his government to ensure that people living with HIV across the state have access to quality and affordable treatment.

    In his response, Gov. Ajimobi assured the delegation of his administration’s readiness to partner with them to bring the figure of infected people to a barest minimum if not totally eradicated.

    Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo said his administration would support the donor agencies with funds and human capital towards the eradication in the state.

    NAN

  • Monkeypox now in 11 states, WHO confirms more cases

    Monkeypox now in 11 states, WHO confirms more cases

    The Federal Ministry of health has announced laboratory confirmation of six additional cases among the earlier reported suspected cases of Monkeypox virus.

    Mrs Boade Akinola, Director Media and Public Relations in the ministry, made this known in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.

    Akinola said two cases were confirmed each in Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom while Enugu State and FCT had one case each.

    News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the WHO Reference Laboratory had earlier confirmed three cases in Bayelsa.

    Akinola, quoted the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, as saying that investigations were ongoing to see if any of the new cases has a link with the Bayelsa cluster, where the outbreak started.

    Ehanire called for calm among members of the public, adding that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is working with all affected states to ensure case finding and adequate management.
    He added that as frightening as the manifestation of the ailment might seem, no fatality has been recorded to date.

    NAN reports that on Sept. 22, NCDC received a report of a suspected case of Monkey pox disease from Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri, Bayelsa.

    The minister said as at the Oct. 25, a total of 94 suspected cases have been reported from 11 states.
    He said the states are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    He said patients of the newly confirmed cases were already being managed by public health authorities and have been receiving appropriate clinical care.
    He said Ministry, through NCDC, was in close contact with all State Epidemiology Teams, and the health facilities providing clinical care to both suspected and confirmed cases.

    He added that State Commissioners of Health have been advised to place all health care facilities and Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers on alert, to ensure early case detection, reporting and effective treatment.

    The minister said a National-level Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) led by the NCDC with support from our development partners, was coordinating outbreak investigation and response across affected states.

    He added the EOC included the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as experts from partner agencies.

    He said the EOC would provide daily support to state ministries of health in active case finding, epidemiological investigation, contact tracing, case management, psychosocial support and risk communication.

    Ehanire said the NCDC has also deployed Rapid Response Teams to the four States with confirmed cases.

    He added that the NCDC has been working with Monkeypox virus experts from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent further spread.

  • 11m doctors, nurses, teachers needed to save Africa from ‘disaster’ – UN

    11m doctors, nurses, teachers needed to save Africa from ‘disaster’ – UN

    Africa needs 11 million more doctors, nurses and teachers by 2030 to prevent a “social and economic disaster” that could propel millions to migrate, the UN said on Thursday.

    It said the 11 million were needed to help the continent cope with a booming population, with the number of children set to increase by 170 million to 750 million in the next 13 years.

    “We are at the most critical juncture for Africa’s children,” Leila Pakkala of the UNICEF said in a statement.

    “Get it right, and we could … lift hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty, and contribute to enhanced prosperity, stability, and peace,” said Pakkala, who heads UNICEF operations in eastern and southern Africa.

    The UN’s children agency attributed the boom in births to high fertility rates, a rising number of women of reproductive age and lower child mortality.

    UNICEF said by the end of the century, one in two children worldwide will live in Africa.

    If they reach working age both schooled and healthy, they could spur economic growth – but for that to happen, Pakkala said investment in education and health were badly needed.

    UNICEF added that more schools must be built.

    The UN agency said that teachers, doctors, midwives and health workers must be trained and encouraged to stay in their community rather than move to cities or abroad.

    More than one in five Africans aged six to 11 are not in school.

    Girls, in particular, are more likely never to see a classroom, waylayed by child marriage and teenage pregnancy.

    Six in ten Africans lack access to basic sanitation and on average there are only 1.7 medical professionals per 1,000 inhabitants, well below the minimum international standard of 4.45 set by the WHO.

    To bridge the gap, 5.6 million health workers and 5.8 million teachers have to be trained by 2030.

    If it fails to invest in its future, Africa risks a “demographic disaster, characterised by unemployment and instability,” UNICEF said.

    It painted a picture where a lack of jobs, rapid urbanization and climate change could force millions to flee the continent seeking a better life overseas.

    Robert Yates, a health expert at the British think tank Chatham House, said 11 million teachers and medics was a challenging goal but not unfeasible, as shown by the rapid development of some Asian countries, such as Thailand and China.

    The UN agency added that this required a strong political will to boost public spending on health and education – rare in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Nigeria, which currently accounts for 20 percent of all Africa’s births, for example spends only 0.9 per cent of its GDP on public health, one of the lowest rates in the world.

    Exceptions in recent decades included South Africa, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

    NAN

  • Plague kills 94 in Madagascar, WHO working to prevent spread

    Plague kills 94 in Madagascar, WHO working to prevent spread

    A plague epidemic has killed 94 people on the island of Madagascar and could spread further, the WHO said on Friday.

    WHO’s Africa emergencies director, Ibrahima Fall, told reporters in Geneva the organization was racing to stop both the Madagascar plague and an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Uganda that it was confident it could contain.

    The world body said plague is endemic in Madagascar, but the outbreak that has caused 1,153 suspected cases since August is especially worrying because it started earlier in the season than usual.

    The WHO said it has hit towns rather than rural areas, and it is mainly causing pneumonic plague, the most deadly form of the disease.

    The outbreak already looks big when compared with the 3,248 cases and 584 deaths reported worldwide from 2010 to 2015.

    Fall said the risk to Madagascar remained very high, although the international risk was very low.

    WHO has delivered antibiotics to Madagascar to treat up to 5,000 patients and as a prophylactic dose for up to 100,000 people who might be at risk, as well as 150,000 sets of personal protective equipment.

    He said about 2,000 healthworkers are tracing people who have had contact with plague sufferers, which should allow the disease to be controlled relatively quickly.

    “I‘m confident that with the strong team we have on the ground, combined with more partners coming and health workers, we will be able very quickly to reverse the trend.”

    In Uganda, WHO hopes to halt an outbreak of Marburg, a highly infectious hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, which killed a 50-year-old woman on Oct. 11, three weeks after her brother died of similar symptoms.

    “The positive thing is that Uganda is very used to managing this kind of outbreak,” Fall said. In the past decade, Uganda has already had four outbreaks of Marburg.

    An outbreak can kill up to 90 per cent of the people who catch the disease.

    Several hundred people may have been exposed to the virus at health facilities and at a traditional burial of the dead woman’s brother, who worked as a game hunter and lived near a cave inhabited by Rousettus bats, natural hosts of the Marburg virus.

    One suspected case and one probable case are being investigated.

    “The teams have already investigated the area, identified potential contacts and monitoring these contacts.

    “We are getting daily updates from the team, we are confident that… we will be able to contain it very quickly,” Fall said.

    NAN

  • WHO, NAFDAC partner on eradicating fake drugs

    WHO, NAFDAC partner on eradicating fake drugs

    The Federal Government has introduced drug Coordinated Wholesale Centres (CWCs) to check the menace of fake and falsified medical products in the country even as it warned that by end of December next year, all open drug markets will be shut.

    Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole stated this in Lagos during a stakeholders workshop organised by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    The workshop was themed, “The prevention, detection and response of substandard and falsified medical products.”

    Prof Adewole said the new measures were designed to allow drugs to be sourced directly from the importers or manufacturers down to the end users instead of buying drugs from the open drug markets.

    According to him, the federal Ministry of Health had already developed National Drug Distribution Guidelines, NDDG, in 2012 to address the unsatisfactory chaotic drug distribution system of the country.

    He said coordinated wholesale centres to accommodate open market medicines sellers have been approved and are being developed in Lagos, Onitsha, Aba and Kano and CWCs will commence operation by January 1st 2019. Adewole observed that medicine is an important component of healthcare delivery service and without the infusion of medicines; the health care service delivery system of a nation is sterile.

    Prof Adewole said: “A good-quality medicine supply system is essential for healthcare delivery. There is a special need to prevent therapeutic drug falsification in order to safeguard against health and maintain trust in healthcare system. The overall scale of trading in medicine and the resultant harm done to global health has not been adequately accessed.”

    Acting Director-General of NAFDAC, Mr. Ademola Mogbojuri, said the public health implications of substandard and falsified medical products are dire and this includes treatment failure, high treatment cost, development of resistance, loss of confidence in the healthcare providers and healthcare system and may ultimately, result in fatality and death.”

    Mr. Mogbojuri raised the alarm that the problem of faking has become a serious threat to global public health. He added that the fight against this nefarious act requires sustained action by both governmental and non governmental bodies. “Single and isolated interventions cannot address the issue of substandard falsified medical products. I call for coordinated actions with international organisations to reduce to the barest minimum the incidence of the ugly menace.”

    The Acting Director-General said WHO established member states mechanism on substandard, spurious falsely labeled, falsified and counterfeit medical products following its resolution 65:19 in May, 2012 to promote public health, and access to affordable, safe, efficacious and quality medical product, across the globe.

    Declaring the workshop open, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode who noted that the number of lives lost as a result of substandard medical product in the market was alarming blamed the unacceptable situation to weakness of regulatory bodies charged with the responsibility of nipping the act in the bud.

    Ambode said the capacity building workshop on prevention, detection and response to substandard and falsified medical products would improve the effectiveness of measures that have been put in place to achieve these objectives.

    He said: “It is important to emphasise that this fight must be holistic in terms of participation by all relevant government agencies including custom service standard organisation of Nigeria and the Nigeria police among others.

    ”Our efforts must also focus on identifying the sources of these products with a view to ensuring that they do not find their way into the market.”