ABIDJAN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire loses 50 billion CFA Francs (about 100 million U.S. dollars) annually due to counterfeit drugs, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.
The health ministry officials said the problem of counterfeit pharmaceutical products is a scourge that should be fought with all energy due to the serious danger that use of such products poses.
Cote d'Ivoire's Health Minister Raymonde Goudou Coffie said the government was committed to eradicating the phenomenon.
"The phenomenon of selling illegal pharmaceutical products in our country is having many negative effects that are more and more visible among the population, causing high rates of morbidity and mortality as well as appearance of some diseases, especially renal failure and hepatitis," Coffie said.
She said due to the prevailing situation, the government had come up with an elaborate intervention program that will be executed during the third and fourth quarters of 2016.
"The drugs are sold in the streets by illiterate people, who do not understand human body and who are not health specialists. This illegal sale has increased the number of sick people and deaths," the minister decried.
She further denounced the existence of a network of illegal traders of counterfeit drugs in the country.
According to health experts, the damage goes beyond economic losses to the state, since the counterfeit drugs pose a major public health risk due to their dangerous contents.
According to the World Health Organization, close to 100,000 deaths occur in Africa annually due to use of counterfeit drugs.
