Nearly half a million people in sub-Saharan Africa die each year at the hands of two types of substandard or fake drugs, according to a new threat assessment report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
This includes 267,000 deaths a year from antimalarial medicines and another 169,271 deaths from antibiotics to treat severe pneumonia in children.
The report says that high prevalence of infectious diseases coupled with challenges in access to health care, including affordability, means “demand for medical products and services is not fully met through formal channels” creating an opening for organized criminals involved in trafficking.
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
