Millions of people worldwide, particularly in developing countries, are impacted by substandard and falsified antimicrobials. The problem of substandard and falsified antimicrobials is recognized, but its dynamic and ever-changing nature requires constant monitoring and contemporary analysis.
A recent systematic review aimed to provide a current snapshot of the prevalence of substandard and falsified antimicrobials in selected East African countries. The review included scientific studies on antimicrobial quality conducted in these countries and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals from 2017 to February 2023. The studies were assessed for quality according to the Medicine Quality Assessment Reporting Guidelines (MEDQUARG).
Alarming Rates of Falsified Antimicrobials in East Africa Exposed in Recent Study
Fifteen studies estimating the prevalence of poor-quality antimicrobial medicines in four selected East African countries were included in the review. The analysis revealed that 22.6% of antimicrobial samples failed at least one quality test. The prevalence of substandard samples was 17% in antibiotics, 24% in antimalarial drugs, and a startling 56% in anthelmintics.
The most commonly examined quality control parameters in the studies were the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) content, accounting for 14 of the 15 studies. Among the failing samples, 33.1% failed assay API-content determination, 26.5% failed visual inspection and packaging analysis, 19.2% failed dissolution, 14% had flawed hardness or friability, 4% failed uniformity, and 3.2% failed the disintegration test of the quality control parameter.
The review highlights the general prevalence of substandard and falsified antimicrobials in selected East African countries and emphasizes the need for effective strategies to combat this issue, which threatens millions of lives.
Original Article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295956
Original title: Substandard and falsified antimicrobials in selected east African countries: A systematic review
