Countries in central Africa face a major public health threat from trafficking in medicines, fuelled by a gap between healthcare needs and access to safe, affordable medicine, the UN warned on Tuesday.
The six countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) have a high prevalence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV.
But treatment and safe medicines are not always readily available, or are too expensive, which “fuels the development of an illicit market for medical products”, warned a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and CEMAC.
Traffickers divert prescription drugs from regulated supply chains and national health programme stocks.
They also peddle medicines that are counterfeit, substandard or have not been officially approved.
They include antibiotics, anti-malarial drugs, painkillers, anti-inflammatories and psychoactive substances such as tramadol and pregabalin.
At least 251 tonnes of medicines were seized in Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon between 2020 and 2025, the report said.
