The supply of safe medicines ensures public health. The government has to take measures to for the prevention of falsified medicines. The consequences of falsified and substandard medicines are very dangerous as it leads to adverse effects. Falsified medicines are authorized medicines but unable to meet the standards of quality. All countries, especially low and middle-income countries are affecting by falsified medicines.
A strong relationship exists between drug failure and health as these are inverse proportional to each other. Falsified medicine will cause illness, mortality, early death, poisoning, untreatable disease, and treatment failure.
Various type of shady ingredients exists in substandard and falsified medicines that cause poisoning in the human body. Common types of shady ingredients are mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, chrome, uranium, strontium, selenium, aluminum, and boric acid. These ingredients in medicines are a threat to health due to the occurrence of the poisoning.
According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), falsified medicines increase the antimicrobial resistance among the people, who can pass on the mutant infection while individuals traveling abroad. Later on, such virus resistant and bacteria become impossible to treat. Not only this, but falsified medicines also cause untreated diseases, early death and treatment failure.
Moreover, the International Council of Nurses has to address the problem of falsified products for the sake of public health. Falsified products are not only a threat to health but also decrease the trust of public confidence in health systems and healthcare professionals.
Nurses working in the area of healthcare departments have the experience to identify the falsified medicines to generate a report for the improvement of the national healthcare systems. Hence, falsified medicines can be removed from the healthcare institutes based on the generated report of falsified and substandard medicines.
The usage of falsified medicines should be prevented by providing public awareness and education. The threat to health can be prevented through effective campaigns to explore awareness among the general public.
Falsified medicines contain dangerous ingredients in the toxic form so strong national regulatory frameworks are necessary for safe medicines. Also, these regulatory frameworks will fight against falsified products. As per the current research, only 20% of WHO member states have a well-developed and effective drug regulatory plan. Proper drug regulatory plan ensures safe medicine and prevents falsified medicines.
Production of substandard and falsified medicines is a global and complex issue. Worldwide, it has a great impact on the health of adults and children in developed as well as underdeveloped countries. Prevention of falsified medicines is necessary and precautionary measures should be taken at the national and international levels to curb this practice. Also, the supply chain management of drugs should be handled with care. Additionally, the supply of falsified medicines through e-commerce should be controlled and regularized for public health and safety.
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