#StopFakeMeds #ThinkSmart
Because we all face illness, benign or serious.
When it concerns our loved ones, adults and children, everything is done to heal them.
Unlike narcotics where the user knows that it is illegal, the person who buys fake medicines to treat themselves does not imagine that it could kill them personally or someone in their family!
If you knew that you were going to use fake medicines that can kill instead of treating, you would never buy the products.
There is a sort of double sentence there: that of being helpless in the face of illness, and that of being, in addition, robbed at the heart of this desire for healing.
This plague affects all populations and all countries.
To think that these poisons are far from us would be a mistake:
1/ We travel more and more and, as such, we are faced with this scourge
2/ The circulation of fake medicines adapts to the development of health systems. The main factors favoring fake medicines spread are:
– Access to medicines, for example, if there are pharmacies or health centers near the sick person
– Dispensing: the poorest cannot afford full boxes and will go and buy medications individually
– The price of medicines: faced with the sometimes-unaffordable costs of treatments (anti-cancer, anti-diabetic), the attraction for inexpensive products is a reality
– Access to medical structures such as doctors, hospitals, clinics, dispensaries to correctly diagnose and treat with dignity
– Effectiveness of health insurance to cover part of the costs of medical treatment
– Technological development with the increase in medical products purchases on the Internet.
3/ Corruption and the attraction for profit are two factors favoring the spread of fake medicines in health structures
Example: in France, judgment and conviction of an international trafficker having imported and sold thousands of fake medicines, in the United Kingdom, the United States.., amongst all for heart diseases. france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azu…
4/ Current events: fake medicines meet the need for medicines in countries. For example, the COVID crisis saw sales of fake medicines proliferate on the Internet and allowed criminal structures to reorganize during major lockdowns. Another example, drug shortages encourage the infiltration of fake medicines into distribution chains.
