Pharmacist: Ghana Could Lose Fight Against Malaria Over Fake Drugs

''The use of fake and ineffective malaria drugs is a major setback to the fight against malaria'', a pharmacist has said.

Such drugs, according to the chief pharmacist at the Police Hospital, ASP Ellen Sam, could derail the country’s quest in the fight against malaria.

Speaking on the sidelines of a donation by Bliss GVS Pharma to the 37 Military and Police hospitals, ASP Sam said Ghanaians must desist from buying such drugs.

“Drugs are very important in every healthcare system. When people come to the hospital and they are diagnosed and we don’t have effective medication to manage them, they are not going to get well,” she said.

"So, this drug will go a very long way to help us in managing our clients, especially the anti-malaria so it has come at a good time, we need them…”

Sam added; “I can say that malaria is a very serious condition, especially when uncomplicated malaria is not managed promptly, it progresses to complicated malaria which can even lead to death, especially in pregnant women and children under five years.”

ASP Sam said that malaria constitutes more than 20% of OPD cases.

The institutional manager of Bliss GVS Pharma Ghana, Joshua Affram, said the gesture forms part of the firm’s contribution towards the fight against malaria

The firm also donated medicines worth GHC150000 to the 37 Military Hospital and the Police Hospital in Accra.