Factors Associated with Drug Counterfeit in Nigeria: A Twelve Year Review.

Background: Drug counterfeiting poses a great danger to every society. The actual prevalence of counterfeit drugs is difficult to ascertain presently but just like other crimes, drug counterfeiting is an underground business that often comes to light mostly when death occurs. About 10% of drugs circulating worldwide are fake drugs with enormous associated health risk. Preventing the problem is a primary duty of every responsible nation in order to save lives. Objective: This paper aims at studying the factors associated with drug counterfeiting, its consequences and possible solutions. Methods: This article reviews relevant literatures published from 2004 to 2015 from medical journals, health survey reports, books, Google search and health-related websites such as World Health Organization. Results: Several researchers have identified corruption and conflict of interest, poor health seeking behavior of Nigerians, high prices of locally manufactured drugs due to high taxes and tariffs, inadequate legislation, unordered drug distribution system, inadequate cooperation from government agencies and discriminatory regulation by exporting countries as the major factors associated with drug counterfeiting in Nigeria. Conclusion/ Recommendations: Drug counterfeiting is one of the greatest atrocities of our time and it affects both developing and developed countries. There is an urgent need for the government as well as professional bodies to ensure massive public enlightenment and the effective enforcement of the existing drug laws in Nigeria.

Nigerian HIV Positive Mother Tested Negative after Fifty-Four Months on HAART.

Background: There is currently no cure for HIV/AIDS infection. Antiretroviral treatment can suppress and delay AIDS-related illness for many years but cannot clear the virus completely. This case review includes an attempt to find explanation for the conversion of an HIV positive grandmultiparous woman to a negative status. Findings: The source of data was the patient’s case file and review of relevant literature. A 38 year old HIV positive grand-multiparous female trader was diagnosed on 12/08/2010. She was placed on HAART for four years but was found to have tested HIV negative when the routine retroviral test was performed on 08/04/2014. Her last delivery was on 12/04/12 and she was placed on PMTCT regimen for that pregnancy. The baby’s status was not documented. From 16/08/2010 to 06/03/2014, the patient’s weight ranged between 52kg to 66kg. She was not screened for tuberculosis and viral load was not done. Initial CD4 count on 30/08/2014 was 357 cells / microliter while the value was 887 cells / micro-liter on the 24/02/2014. Other test results were essentially normal. Conclusions: Though a functional cure is a possibility here yet in resource limited settings, the lack of routine confirmatory testing, compounded by incorrect interpretation of weak positive test lines and use of tie breaker algorithms can leave a false-positive result undetected for a long time. Beyond HIV screening, mandatory confirmatory tests are imperative before reporting HIV positive results. Weak positive results should not be recognized as valid except in the screening of blood donors.