New Delhi: The World Health Organization says about 11 per cent of medicines in developing countries are counterfeit and likely responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of children from diseases like malaria and pneumonia. It’s the first attempt by the UN health agency to assess the problem.
Experts reviewed 100 studies involving more than 48,000 medicines. Drugs for treating malaria and bacterial infections accounted for nearly 65 per cent of fake medicines. Scientists commissioned by WHO at the University of Edinburgh estimate the number of children dying from pneumonia after receiving bad drugs to be between about 72,000 and 169,000.
WHO says the cases of fake medicines it found are only “a small fraction” and problems may be going unreported. The reports were released on November 28.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
