(Image source: Wikimedia Commons )


BY EMILY SPAIN


A contaminated heart drug has now killed more than 100 people in Lahore, Pakistan and officials worry the number could continue to rise. BBC has the details on the lethal meds.

“Officials have warned that the contaminated drugs made have been given to nearly 40,000 people. They say that samples are now being tested in the UK and France.”
 

“And the authorities are being criticized for having chosen to buy from cheap rather than reputable sources”

This incident isn’t the only problem Pakistan has with bad drugs.  The World Health Organization reports Pakistan as one of the most significant producers and sellers of counterfeit meds.   The blog Dawn links this problem to the nation’s growing poverty.

“… poverty is not having access to real doctors and dying of counterfeit medicines provided by the government itself. Counterfeit medicines... remain a huge problem in poor countries where most citizens do not have access to education and are willing to compromise on the quality of life on the slightest availability of ‘price discounts’.”

So who’s to blame for the bad drugs?   Pakistan Today reports the government, drug companies, doctors and even patients themselves are all being targeted.
The writer goes on to say this incident calls for change.

“Most of the regulations in the health sector are completed for formality's sake. Whether it is simply getting a pharmacist to sign up for a pharmacy or getting a drug inspector to observe a batch of drugs. And this state of affairs... extends to the whole country. Nowhere is the need for a complete overhaul felt more than in the health sector.”

The Express Tribune reports the government was slow to react to the fake and deadly medications.  It quotes a former chief saying:

“My government had made hospitals for heart patients while the current government is killing these patients by giving them fake drugs.”

So far three local drug companies have now been arrested for allegedly providing the deadly heart drugs. A doctor told the Express Tribune he thinks the contaminated meds have either arsenic, lead or mercury in them.