Poor-Quality Medicines in Cameroon: A Critical Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Ange Waffo Tchounga ◽  
Pierre-Yves Sacré ◽  
Patient Ciza Hamuli ◽  
Rose Ngono Mballa ◽  
Emmanuel Nnanga Nga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Medicine Research ◽  
Health Fund ◽  
Counterfeit Medicine ◽  
Research Institute

Poor-quality medicines are the cause of many public health and socioeconomic problems. We conducted a review to acquire an overview of the situation concerning such medicines in Cameroon. Different searches were performed on databases from several websites of the WHO, the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon, the Anti-Counterfeit Medicine Research Institute, the Global Pharma Health Fund, and the Infectious Disease Data Observatory. We identified 92 publications comprised of 19 peer-reviewed studies and 73 alerts. Based on studies completed, 1,664 samples were analyzed, and the prevalence of substandard and falsified (SF) medicines could be estimated for 1,440 samples. A total of 67.5% of these samples were collected from the informal sector, 20.9% from the formal sector, and 11.6% from both sectors. We found a prevalence of SF medicines across the peer-reviewed studies of 26.9%, whereas most of the SF medicines belonged to the anti-infective class. The problem of SF medicines is not studied sufficiently in Cameroon; therefore, efforts should be made to conduct adequate studies in terms of representativity and methodology.

scholarly journals Counterfeit/Fake and Substandard Medicines – A Global Bioethical Issue Requiring A Global Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Evangel Sarwar
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Counterfeit Drugs ◽  
Counterfeit Medicines ◽  
Substandard Medicines ◽  
Counterfeit Medicine ◽  
The U.S

Counterfeit drugs are a global problem and a public health hazard. Nearly 10 percent of all medicines sold worldwide are fake, leading to an estimated 100,000 deaths each year, equating to an additional economic burden of close to $200 billion annually. Counterfeit medicines also thwart public health efforts to control infectious diseases like Covid-19 and Tuberculosis and lead to the worsening of other public health crises such as anti-microbial resistance (AMR). According to the CDC, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections in the U.S each year, with more than 35,000 people dying, have been reported. Globalization and the internet's expansion have led to the rapid spreading of poor-quality medicines due to the high demand for cheap goods and lack of access - before adequate detection and intervention are possible. Moreover, selling counterfeit medicine is more profitable with lesser penalties, even in the U.S. As a clandestine market, there is no precise magnitude of how the counterfeit-medicine market flows. The WHO is alarmed by the lack of available data to demonstrate the extent and impact of fake/substandard medicines. Controlling counterfeit drugs' availability will not be easy; however, it has become necessary to protect public and global health. Through the lens of a case in Bangladesh that demonstrates how easy it is to sell and get away with selling fake medicines in developing countries - this paper discusses how counterfeit medicines negatively contribute significantly to human lives and sufferings in developing and developed countries. No single policy will be effective based on the different issues faced on multiple fronts due to fake/substandard medicines. However, a broad-based concerted effort across the various stakeholders to combat this counterfeit drug problem and secure the global supply chain is urgently needed.

A brief review of diagnosis of small ruminants brucellosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Ren ◽  
Qisheng Peng
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
False Positive ◽  
Brucella Melitensis ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Immunological Tests

: Brucellosis caused by bacteria of the genus of Brucella remains a major zoonosis in the widely world, which is an infectious disease with a severe economic impact on animal husbandry and public health. The genus of Brucella includes ten species and the most prevalent is Brucella melitensis. The diagnosis of Brucella melitensis ruminant brucellosis is based on bacteriological and immunological tests. The use of vaccines and the false-positive serological reactions (FPSR) caused by other cross-reacting bacteria represent the immunological contexts. This complex context results in the development of the large number of diagnosis of Brucella melitensis brucellosis. The aim of this article is to briefly review the detection methods and compare the superiorities of different tests.

A critical review of environmental and public health impacts from the activities of evaporation ponds

2021 ◽  
pp. 149065
Author(s):  
Patrick Amoatey ◽  
Azizallah Izady ◽  
Ali Al-Maktoumi ◽  
Mingjie Chen ◽  
Issa Al-Harthy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Evaporation Ponds

scholarly journals Recent advances on the removal of dyes from wastewater using various adsorbents: A critical review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumi Dutta ◽  
Bramha Gupta ◽  
suneel Kumar srivastava ◽  
Ashok Kumar Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Dye Wastewater ◽  
Recent Advances

The rapid increase of toxic dye wastewater generated from various industries remains a severe public health problem and of prime environmental protection concern. Therefore, it has imposed a major challenge...

scholarly journals The effect of social distancing on the reach of an epidemic in social networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Gutin ◽  
Tomohiro Hirano ◽  
Sung-Ha Hwang ◽  
Philip R. Neary ◽  
Alexis Akira Toda
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Monte Carlo Simulation ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Simulation Results

AbstractHow does social distancing affect the reach of an epidemic in social networks? We present Monte Carlo simulation results of a susceptible–infected–removed with social distancing model. The key feature of the model is that individuals are limited in the number of acquaintances that they can interact with, thereby constraining disease transmission to an infectious subnetwork of the original social network. While increased social distancing typically reduces the spread of an infectious disease, the magnitude varies greatly depending on the topology of the network, indicating the need for policies that are network dependent. Our results also reveal the importance of coordinating policies at the ‘global’ level. In particular, the public health benefits from social distancing to a group (e.g. a country) may be completely undone if that group maintains connections with outside groups that are not following suit.

scholarly journals Innovative COVID-19 Programs to Rapidly Serve New Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-46
Author(s):  
Joanna G. Katzman ◽  
Laura E. Tomedi ◽  
Karla Thornton ◽  
Paige Menking ◽  
Michael Stanton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
General Education ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Healthcare Outcomes ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Project Echo

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) at the University of New Mexico is a telementoring program that uses videoconferencing technology to connect health care providers in underserved communities with subject matter experts. In March 2020, Project ECHO created 10 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) telementoring programs to meet the public health needs of clinicians and teachers living in underserved rural and urban regions of New Mexico. The newly created COVID-19 programs include 7 weekly sessions (Community Health Worker [in English and Spanish], Critical Care, Education, First-Responder Resiliency, Infectious Disease Office Hours, and Multi-specialty) and 3 one-day special sessions. We calculated the total number of attendees, along with the range and standard deviation, per session by program. Certain programs (Critical Care, Infectious Disease Office Hours, Multi-specialty) recorded the profession of attendees when available. The Project ECHO research team collected COVID-19 infection data by county from March 11 through May 31, 2020. During that same period, 9765 health care and general education professionals participated in the COVID-19 programs, and participants from 31 of 35 (89%) counties in New Mexico attended the sessions. Our initial evaluation of these programs demonstrates that an interprofessional clinician group and teachers used the Project ECHO network to build a community of practice and social network while meeting their educational and professional needs. Because of Project ECHO’s large reach, the results of the New Mexico COVID-19 response suggest that the rapid use of ECHO telementoring could be used for other urgent national public health problems.

scholarly journals Gastrointestinal infections caused by consumption of raw drinking milk in England & Wales, 1992–2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Adams ◽  
L. Byrne ◽  
J. Edge ◽  
A. Hoban ◽  
C. Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Campylobacter Jejuni ◽  
Raw Milk ◽  
National Surveillance ◽  
Gastrointestinal Infections ◽  
Food Standards ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Drinking Milk ◽  
Intestinal Infectious Disease

Abstract Systematic, national surveillance of outbreaks of intestinal infectious disease has been undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) since 1992. Between 1992 and 2002, there were 19 outbreaks linked to raw drinking milk (RDM) or products made using raw milk, involving 229 people; 36 of these were hospitalised. There followed an eleven-year period (2003–2013) where no outbreaks linked to RDM were reported. However, since 2014 seven outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (n = 3) or Campylobacter jejuni (n = 4) caused by contaminated RDM were investigated and reported. Between 2014 and 2017, there were 114 cases, five reported hospitalisations and one death. The data presented within this review indicated that the risk of RDM has increased since 2014. Despite the labelling requirements and recommendations that children should not consume RDM, almost a third of outbreak cases were children. In addition, there has been an increase in consumer popularity and in registered RDM producers in the UK. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) continue to provide advice on RDM to consumers and have recently made additional recommendations to enhance existing controls around registration and hygiene of RDM producers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document