2 December 2008
THE 39 children who died from using fake teething power would be a moderate estimate of the number of Nigerian children who die from fake drugs, or even My Pikin, the medication currently at the centre of the long drawn battle on fake drugs.
Several things should worry Nigerians about fake drugs. One of them is that with the level of illiteracy in this society, what kills Nigerians remains unknown. Most people who use medications are unable to know which is not fake.
In rural Nigeria and in settings where religion, tradition, lack of facilities, illiteracy and poverty prevent autopsies, causes of death are difficult to ascertain. Where they are known, they are mostly unreported.
Also the pace of prosecution of suspected fake drug barons is slow. Some of the cases have lasted more than 10 years with insistent adjournments. Under the law, these processes have to be followed to obtain a conviction.
No new legislations have been enacted to strengthen the fight against fake drugs. In the interim, fake drug merchants have prospered, though they maintain a low profile to escape attention.
Fake drug dealers have found new lairs in the rural areas and among the urban poor, who hardly have access to the media used for campaigns against illegal drugs. There is therefore a pressing need to intensify the campaigns against fake drugs, in media and languages that would reach more Nigerians.
My Pikin, by its name, targets this class of people. It is instructive that the discoveries were made when the affected children were admitted at teaching hospitals in Zaria , Ibadan and Lagos .
How many of cases did not make the teaching hospitals? How many chemists would follow the instructions to stop selling My Pikin? With profit as a main motivation, most chemists who have stocked the product would be wondering who would refund their investment.
The My Pikin incident proves that the war against fake drugs requires a new intensity. It is more worrisome at a time Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, the Director General of the National Agency for Foods and Drug Administration Control, NAFDAC, is about to leave the agency. She has been screened for a ministerial appointment.
Professor Akunyili battled fake drugs with uncommon zeal and always placed the challenges on the forefront of national attention.
NAFDAC and the police would have to make a round of the major drug markets to take My Pikin off the warehouses of the major distributors. They should also co-opt health officials of local government councils to stop the distribution of the medicine though drug stores in their areas.
The aim would not be to harass or arrest the chemists, since they are not the ones who caused the problems, but to halt further circulation of the drug. If these measures are immediately taken, the distribution of My Pikin could be curtailed and more of our children saved from a blighted future.
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