A new Case Report, published in The Lancet , warns travellers of the dangers of purchasing fake antimalarial medicine after doctors in Spain treated a patient who became dangerously ill as a result of being sold counterfeit drugs in Equatorial Guinea. The drugs that the patient had purchased were sent to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) for analysis and there confirmed to be fake, despite being sold in convincing packaging that, upon cursory inspection, appeared to be authentic. The report draws attention to several distinctive features on the packaging of the fake drugs, including spelling mistakes, and comes after a May 2012 Review in The Lancet Infectious Diseases warned that up to a third of antimalarial drugs sold worldwide could be fake.
Dr C. J. Chaccour, Division of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. E) carloschaccour@yahoo.com
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The Lancet