Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been assertions that hydroxychloroquine could be of assistance in the prevention and treatment the deadly virus. Africa News reports that it has since been trafficked.

Chloroquine is well known in Africa. According to Africa News, it was, until the 1980s one of the most widely prescribed anti-malaria drugs but is no longer authorised on the continent by the World Health Organisation. Attempts, however, have been made to manufacture the drug in West Africa.

Africa News reports that in Nigeria, a 250 mg dosage of chloroquine can be bought at an outrageous price: What had normally sold at $8 a pack of 60 tablets can now be bought for no less than $194 in pharmacies. Prices have soared in the last four months.

In Cameroon, a network of counterfeit chloroquine manufacturers was arrested in Bafoussam way back in March 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in the country. Others had been more recently arrested in Niger, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire.

Counterfeit chloroquine found in Cameroon and Congo contained far too little of the active ingredients, or the wrong ones. The counterfeits contained only an ineffective dose of chloroquine, or, instead of chloroquine, paracetamol or the antibiotic metronidazole. Researchers fear that due to the low dosage of chloroquine, the fake drugs might promote the development of resistant pathogens.

The counterfeit drugs were not only found at illegal vendors but also in licensed pharmacies.

Umm Muhammed Umar