Apothecary by Stevepb. Public domain via Pixabay.
Healthcare is expensive, and not just in high income countries. Those who are suffering or struck by illness in resource limited countries are often unable to afford services that can provide them the care they need. Inequitable access to health services continues to be among the greatest public health challenges of our time.
Since becoming the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Geberyasus has made universal healthcare a corner stone of his agenda. The idea is that all people, regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they earn, deserve access to healthcare. The idea is both noble and timely. However, implicit in the goal of universal health care is not just access to a healthcare center and a provider, but access to medicines that are of the desired quality. This assumption, that medicines provided to the sick will be effective and not cause harm, is unfortunately not true in large parts of the world.
In Pakistan, where I grew up, poor quality medicines given at a public hospital in Lahore led to over 200 deaths in 2011. In Nigeria in 2007, 84 babies died when a teething syrup was contaminated. Panama was hit hard in 2006 by a Chinese manufactured cough syrup which had an anti-freeze as a poor-quality substitute for glycerine.
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