Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Globalization and Health
Published in: Globalization and Health 1/2008

Open Access 01-12-2008 | Debate

Dangerous medicines: Unproven AIDS cures and counterfeit antiretroviral drugs

Author: Joseph J Amon

Published in: Globalization and Health | Issue 1/2008

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Increasing access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a critical goal endorsed by the United Nations and all of its member states. At the same time, anecdotal accounts suggest that the promotion of unproven AIDS 'cures' and remedies are widespread, and in the case of The Gambia, Iran and South Africa, have been promoted by governments directly. Although a range of legislative and regulatory measures have been adopted by some governments, and technical assistance has been provided by international agencies to address counterfeit medicines generally, the threat of counterfeit antiretroviral drugs is not being addressed.

Discussion

Countries, charged with fulfilling the right to health and committed to expanding access to ART must explicitly recognize their obligation to combat unproven AIDS treatments and ensure the availability of a safe and efficacious drugs supply. International donors must help support and coordinate these efforts.
Literature
1.
2.
3.
Meadows M: Maryland man, Virginia physician sentenced for illegally marketing aloe vera 'treatments'. FDA Consumer. 2002, 36: 34-5.PubMed
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Akileswaran C, Macalino GE, Bhakta N, Mayer K, Kumarasamy N: Sources of information about traditional therapies to treat HIV Seropositive patients in Chennai, India. International Conference on AIDS. 15-2004 Jul 11–16: abstract no. ThPeB7246
11.
Okome-Nkoumou M: Delay between first symptoms and HIV infection diagnosis and resort to traditional healers or religions in HIV-infected patients attending the Internal medicine department of the Fondation Jeanne Ebori (FJE), Libreville, Gabon. HIV Clinical Trials. 2005, 6 (1): 38-42.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Whyte SR, Whyte MA, Meinert L, Kyaddondo B: Treating AIDS: Dilemmas of unequal access in Uganda. SAHARA J. 2004, 1 (1): 14-26.CrossRefPubMed
13.
Fassin D: When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa. 2007, U of California Press: Berkley, CACrossRef
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Schneider H, Fassin D: Denial and defiance: a socio-political analysis of AIDS in South Africa. AIDS. 2002, 16 (Supl 4): S45-S51.PubMed
19.
Gambia: Jammeh's HIV/Aids Cure. Daily Champion. 2007, Lagos: Nigeria
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Nattrass N: Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Fight for Antiretrovirals in South Africa. 2007, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
28.
29.
Schoofs M: Tanzanian Military Helped Company Skirt Drug Regulations to Test Virodene. Wall Street Journal. (2001 July 19)
30.
Cullinan K, Thom A: Official nod for voodoo trials?. Mail and Guardian. (2006 Jan 19)
31.
32.
33.
34.
Epstein H: The Invisible Cure: Africa, The West, and the Fight Against AIDS. 2007, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. New York
35.
36.
Forde F: Mbeki link to toxic 'cure'. The Star. (South Africa). 2007, (2007 September 15)
37.
38.
Le Marcis F: The Suffering Body of the City. Public Culture. 2004, 16.3: 453-477. 10.1215/08992363-16-3-453.CrossRef
39.
40.
Cockburn R, Newton PN, Agyarko EK, Akunyili D, White NJ: The global threat of counterfeit drugs: Why industry and governments must communicate dangers. PloS Medicine. 2005, 2 (4): e100-PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
41.
42.
43.
44.
AAGM: Aids Drugs Selling in City Streets (2004 January 22) The Nation (Kenya).
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
World Health Organization (WHO): Counterfeit triple antiretroviral combination product (Ginovir 3D) detected in Cote d'Ivoire: Information Exchange System Alert No 110. 2003, QSM/MC/IEA.110, Geneva: WHO
50.
51.
Dondorp AM, Newton PN, Mayxay M, Van Damme W, Smithuis FM, Yeung S, Petit A, Lynam AJ, Johnson A, Hien TT, McGready R, Farrar JJ, Looareesuwan S, Day NP, Green MD, White NJ: Fake antimalarials in Southeast Asia are a major impediment to malaria control: multinational cross-sectional survey on the prevalence of fake antimalarials. Tropical Medicine and International Health. 2004, 9: 1241-1246. 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2004.01342.x.CrossRefPubMed
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
Chatterjee P: India's trade in fake drugs-bringing the counterfeiters to book. Lancet. 2001, 357 (9270): 1776-1776.CrossRefPubMed
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
World Health Organization: WHO Medicines Strategy: Countries at the Core, 2004–2007. WHO/EDM/2004.5. Geneva. 2004
62.
63.
World Health Organization: Constitution of the World Health Organization. Adopted by the International Health Conference held in New York from 19 June to 22 July 1946 by the representatives of sixty-one states. 1947
64.
65.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) (2006) HIV/AIDS and Human Rights-International Guidelines Geneva. 2002, (2006 consolidated version)
66.
67.
United Nations General Assembly: The Millennium Development Goals Report. 2006, Target 17 Goal 8, United Nations: New York
68.
Hunt P: Report to the General Assembly. A/61/338. 2006, Paragraphs 40 and 73, United Nations: New York
69.
Ferguson A: Commercial Pharmaceutical Medicine and Medicalization: A case study from El Salvador. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. 1981, 5 (2): 104-34.CrossRef
70.
Van der Geest S: The Efficiency of Inefficiency: Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon. Social Science and Medicine. 1982, 16 (24): 2145-53.CrossRefPubMed
71.
Van der Geest S: The Illegal Distribution of Western Medicines in Developing Countries. Medical Anthropology. 1982, 6 (4): 197-219.CrossRef
72.
Fassin D: The Illicit Sale of Pharmaceuticals in Africa: Sellers and Clients in the Suburbs of Dakar. Tropical Geographical Medicine. 1988, 40 (2): 166-70.PubMed
73.
Whyte SR, Geest S, Hardon A: Social lives of medicines. 2002, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
74.
Haak H, Hardon A: Indigenised Pharmaceuticals in Developing Countries: Widely Used, Widely Neglected. Lancet. 1988, 2: 620-1.CrossRefPubMed
75.
Hardon A: Confronting Ill Health: Medicines, self-care and the poor in Manila. 1991, Quezon City, Philippines: Health Action Information Network
76.
Cockcroft A, Andersson N, Milne D, Mokoena T, Masisi M: Community views about routine HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment in Botswana: signs of progress from a cross sectional study. BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2007, 7: 5-PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
77.
78.
79.
Gostin LO: Meeting the survival needs of the world's least healthy people: a proposed model for global health governance. JAMA. 2007, 298 (2): 225-228.CrossRefPubMed
80.
81.
Koenig S, Fernet L, Farmer P: Scaling-up HIV treatment programmes in resource-limited settings: the rural Haiti experience. AIDS. 2004, 18 (Suppl 3): S21-25.CrossRefPubMed
82.
Metadata
Title
Dangerous medicines: Unproven AIDS cures and counterfeit antiretroviral drugs
Author
Joseph J Amon
Publication date
01-12-2008
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Globalization and Health / Issue 1/2008
Electronic ISSN: 1744-8603
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-4-5

Other articles of this Issue 1/2008

Globalization and Health 1/2008 Go to the issue

Research

Global affordability of fluoride toothpaste

Commentary

Shifting paradigms: how the fight for 'universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention' supports achieving 'comprehensive primary health care for all'

Research

Can a bank crisis break your heart?

Research

Tobacco industry issues management organizations: Creating a global corporate network to undermine public health

Research

Oil for health in sub-Saharan Africa: health systems in a 'resource curse' environment

Commentary

The Unite for Diabetes campaign: Overcoming constraints to find a global policy solution