The article
I chose to review was about a serious problem in Tanzania where top officials
were allowing fake anti-retrovirals, which are the principle medication to halt
the worsening of the HIV virus and to keep it in check, to be distributed to
the Tanzanian people. Dr. Hussein
Mwinyi, who was responsible for suspending the individuals who allowed this
happen as well as initiating the recall of over 12,000 bottles of the bad
pharmaceuticals made a powerful statement to the media, explaining that “[he]
would not allow people to ‘play’ around with the lives of the Tanzanians,” as
if he thought that those responsible were doing this as a violent, but humor
filled act. The medicine that was under
scrutiny was not defective, it was a placebo pill that resembled the real
medication that over 1.4 million Tanzanians need to take every day in order to
keep their HIV infection from evolving to AIDS.
Tanzania has a population of roughly 46 million, so 5.6% of the
population is dependent on this type of medication to stay alive. One pharmaceutical company produced this
certain medication is responsible for the mishap and there more than 2000
bottles floating around the country’s pharmacies and clinics.
I found
this article pretty horrifying as this kind of an act in a sense seems like a
type of genocide, as these high up officials in the medical institutions and
government know very well how dependent the well being of people with HIV are
on the medication. One can assume that the responsible party of this scheme was
trying to cause complication and possibly death among the HIV positive
demographic. The people of Tanzania who are HIV positive receive their
treatment for free from a donor supported government project, which essentially
means that those affected by this tragedy will be investigated and given
support from the government. The government also made a statement saying that
the Food and Drug administration along police forces are doing a large scale
investigation because they believe that this was a definite criminal scheme. It is strange that the Food and Drug
administration was not able to catch this sooner and fix it, because according
to the Tanzanian newspaper the problem was initially found out in August. This article highlights just more of the
corruption that occurs in high level institutions in countries of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
Although we have not yet talked
much about AIDS and HIV in class yet, an event like this is definitely related
to the themes of failing and corrupted leadership and targeting certain groups
of people with violence, two major topics that we have discussed in class. This is why I picked this article because it
was a fiasco that was the result of corruption and intended violence from high
level actors. This is issue is significant
to our class because corruption in government along with the spread of HIV and
AIDS are both serious issue affecting countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have been talking about rebellion and
civil wars recently and if one was to look deeper into the actions and
aftermath of this article, it is possible that if this is not fixed and
prevented from happening again, people will get angered and will start riot
because the medication is the livelihood of many. I formulated this possible future from
examples from class such a leaders taking control of all territory, natural
resources, and money in a country which eventually lead to violence by another
group who doesn’t want that leader but also wants power. At first this doesn’t seem like it related
but if people in the pharmaceutical industry in Tanzania keep doing criminal
things against its people, I can see the people getting very angry and
attempting to take control of the industry and possibly more. These people feel that the pharmaceutical
sector is trying to kill them by giving them fake drugs instead of the ones
they depend on. If any violence or
revolt wants to be avoided, Tanzanian policy makers and law makers need to
revamp the pharmaceutical industry by removing everyone in high level position
and starting all over. By cleaning up
the situation before it gets too dirty, a domestic conflict can be avoided in
Tanzania.
Work Cited:
www.google.com/publicdata keyword: population tanzania
This is a large issue throughout sub-saharan Africa since around 40% of the drugs circulating through the region are counterfeit. Most of the time it is not a way for governments to wage war on a section of the population, but an easy money making tactic for the makers of the placebo. It is a good indicator of the corruption in many places because it shows an unwillingness by the government to implement or act on legislation to curb fake drug trafficking. The more the government turns a blind eye to such practices, the less stable the state, and this means the easier it is for a ruler to keep his power grip on the state.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew. Africa has a large problem with the quality of drugs being distributed to the population. I think it also shows low state capacity in Africa to regulate the drug industry and provide public services to its citizens. This is also a problem for other drugs, such as malaria pills, not just HIV/AIDS. It is just as horrifying that some of these drugs are not just placebos but also poor quality, which poses more health threats on the population. I do think this can exacerbate conflict by hurting worker productivity and reinforcing poverty, creating grievances against the state.
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ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a horrifying article. I agree with your statement that the act is almost a form of genocide. I was thinking the same thing. When such a large portion of the population is affected by these treatments, how could it not be? It is a disgusting example of the government controlling the population as if they were lab rats. As Andrew and Katie point out, this is a characteristic of an unstable state.
ReplyDeleteThe article definitely was disturbing. I agree with Katie about it not only being for HIV drugs but for malaria pills as well. The innocent civilians have no idea what they are enduring and are putting their lives in the hands of the government because there is almost no other way to try and receive healthcare. The government putting these people through more hell by giving them low quality and almost non effective drugs just goes to show the level of corruption involved.
ReplyDeleteYour comment of it being strange that the FDA did not catch it sooner reminds me of my aunt who works within Doctors Without Borders. While in Haiti after discovering people were becoming very ill and dying from the vaccines she was handing out, she stopped giving them. According to her, the vacccines provided to DWB were just rejected vaccines of the United States. I think it is important to consider the role developed states play in such corruption and not just the institutions of the state in need.
ReplyDeleteDid it mention what the incentives were to handing out these placebo drugs? Were they a government hand out and wanted to deceive the people? I wrote a policy paper about access to anti-retroviral drugs in Africa and many drugs are being manufactured illegally because Intellectual Property Rights infringe on the access to these life-saving medicines. What a shame that pharmaceutical companies can't establish a distribution program of these drugs. These fake drugs are damaging the productivity of working-age people which in turn can damage the economy.
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ReplyDeleteObviously a provocative article by the number of responses. Good job of bringing this issue to our attention!