Texto para as questões de 86 a 88
The perils of counterfeit drugs go way beyond being
ripped off by dubious online pill-pushers. The World
Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50 per cent
of all medicines sold online are worthless counterfeits. In
developing nations fake pills may account for as much
as 30 per cent of all drugs on the market. Even in the
developed world, 1 per cent of medicines bought over
the counter are fakes.
Some key events illustrate the risk these pose. In
Nigeria, 2500 children died in 1995 after receiving fake
meningitis vaccines. In Haiti, Bangladesh and Nigeria,
around 400 people died in 1998 after being given
paracetamol that had been prepared with diethylene
glycol – a solvent used in wallpaper stripper. The fakers
are nothing if not market-aware: in the face of an
outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in 2005, they began offering
fake Tamiflu.
What can be done? The WHO coordinates an
umbrella body called the International Medical Products
Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT), an industry
initiative that issues alerts when it finds anomalies in the
medicine supply chain. Such events include sudden
drops in wholesale prices, hinting at fakes coming onto
the market, or the mimicking of anti-counterfeiting
features on packaging, such as holograms or barcodes,
says Nimo Ahmed, head of intelligence at the UK’s
Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
New Scientist, 10 July 2010, p. 18. Adaptado.
O texto informa que os falsificadores
