Manslaughter by fake artesunate in Asia--will Africa be next?

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Abstract

Fake artesunate could compromise the hope that artemisinin-based combination therapy offers for malaria control in Africa and Asia.

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Versatile new ion source for the analysis of materials in open air under ambient conditions.

Robert Cody, James Laramée, H. Dupont Durst (2005)

A new ion source has been developed for rapid, noncontact analysis of materials at ambient pressure and at ground potential. The new source, termed DART (for "Direct Analysis in Real Time"), is based on the reactions of electronic or vibronic excited-state species with reagent molecules and polar or nonpolar analytes. DART has been installed on a high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) that provides improved selectivity and accurate elemental composition assignment through exact mass measurements. Although DART has been applied to the analysis of gases, liquids, and solids, a unique application is the direct detection of chemicals on surfaces without requiring sample preparation, such as wiping or solvent extraction. DART has demonstrated success in sampling hundreds of chemicals, including chemical agents and their signatures, pharmaceutics, metabolites, peptides and oligosaccharides, synthetic organics, organometallics, drugs of abuse, explosives, and toxic industrial chemicals. These species were detected on various surfaces, such as concrete, asphalt, human skin, currency, airline boarding passes, business cards, fruits, vegetables, spices, beverages, body fluids, horticultural leaves, cocktail glasses, and clothing. DART employs no radioactive components and is more versatile than devices using radioisotope-based ionization. Because its response is instantaneous, DART provides real-time information, a critical requirement for screening or high throughput.

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Fake antimalarials in Southeast Asia are a major impediment to malaria control: multinational cross-sectional survey on the prevalence of fake antimalarials.

A M Dondorp, P N Newton, M Mayxay … (2004)

To assess the prevalence of counterfeit antimalarial drugs in Southeast (SE) Asia. Cross-sectional survey. Pharmacies and shops selling antimalarial drugs in Myanmar (Burma), Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Proportion of artemisinin derivatives or mefloquine containing drugs of substandard quality. Of the 188 tablet packs purchased which were labelled as 'artesunate' 53% did not contain any artesunate. All counterfeit artesunate tablets were labelled as manufactured by 'Guilin Pharma', and refinements of the fake blisterpacks made them often hard to distinguish from their genuine counterparts. No other artemisinin derivatives were found to be counterfeited. Of the 44 mefloquine samples, 9% contained <10% of the expected amount of active ingredient. An alarmingly high proportion of antimalarial drugs bought in pharmacies and shops in mainland SE Asia are counterfeit, and the problem has increased significantly compared with our previous survey in 1999-2000. This is a serious threat to public health in the region.

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Fake artesunate in southeast Asia.

Peter S. White, Douglas R. Green, S Prakongpan … (2001)

Artesunate is a key antimalarial drug in the treatment of multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria in southeast Asia. We investigated the distribution of counterfeit artesunate tablets by use of the validated, simple, and inexpensive Fast Red TR dye technique. We also aimed to identify distinguishing characteristics of the fake drugs. Of 104 shop-bought "artesunate" samples from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam, 38% did not contain artesunate. Characteristics such as cost and physical appearance of the tablets and packaging reliably predicted authenticity. The illicit trade in counterfeit antimalarials is a great threat to the lives of patients with malaria. The dye test will assist national malaria control authorities in urgently needed campaigns to stop this murderous trade.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS Med

Title: PLoS medicine

Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)

ISSN (Electronic): 1549-1676

ISSN (Print): 1549-1277

Publication date (Electronic): Jun 2006

Volume: 3

Issue: 6

Affiliations

[1 ] Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. paul@tropmedres.ac

Article

Publisher Item ID: 06-PLME-PF-0038R1

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030197

PMC ID: 1475657

PubMed ID: 16752952

SO-VID: dbf0d4a4-da6c-4a4a-8cfe-6874977cd716

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Manslaughter by fake artesunate in Asia--will Africa be next?

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Most cited references 23

Versatile new ion source for the analysis of materials in open air under ambient conditions.

Fake antimalarials in Southeast Asia are a major impediment to malaria control: multinational cross-sectional survey on the prevalence of fake antimalarials.

Fake artesunate in southeast Asia.

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