Business
Nigerians raise concerns over widespread circulation of fake products
By Tumininu Ojelabi Hassan
Recently, there was a public outcry over the widespread circulation of fake drugs, drinks, food items and products in the country. In a bid to gain excess profit, counterfeiters produce substandard versions of genuine products, which have taken over the Nigerian markets, shopping malls and local stores, hence putting the lives of unsuspecting consumers at risk.
Many Nigerians shared their near-death experiences after purchasing and consuming counterfeit drinks, food items, and products at shopping malls, local stores, night clubs, and lounges with picture evidences to back up these claims.
A few weeks ago, social media was flooded with pictures of different fake products. This was in reaction to a post by an X user, who alerted Nigerians to be careful of a brand of stir fry sauce, which had over 11 aberrations.
The sauce, which is originally known as Amoy, produced by Amoy Food Limited in Hong-Kong, China, had been cloned to Amoyi, Anmoy, Amuy, Amoys, Amqy, Amoy’s, Anoy, Amiy, Amoii, and many other inferior products with different spellings, flavours, taste and packaging.
Many Nigerians, who commented on the thread, posted pictures of substandard variants of different brands of wine. Four Cousins, had been cloned into ‘Rich Cousins’, ‘Nice Cousins’, ‘Four Brothers’, and many others. Eva fruit wine has three imitations, the picture of a fake Carlo Rossi wine, which was served at a gathering was posted. Pictures of fake Hennessy, Martell Cordon Bleu, Andre, Smirnoff Ice Double Black, Heineken also surfaced online.
Pepsi-Cola brand, Pepsi, has been faked to Popsi. Close Up, has an imitation named ‘Open Up’, with the same brand logo and catchphrase. Vaseline lip balm has other imitations like ‘Vaseina’, ‘Vesalina’.
In an interview with our correspondent, Dr. Nzubechukwu Ogamba, stated the health risks associated with consuming fake drugs, drinks and products. Using the 2008/2009 ‘MyPikin’ teething syrup incident as an example, he explained the detrimental effect of consuming fake drugs, which can lead to Poisoning.
“Drugs are substances that are taken in specific dosages to alter a physiological state of someone, especially a sick person trying to recover. The UN office on drug and crime had reported that 500,000 people die every year from substandard drugs in sub Saharan Africa, out of which 72,269 are children, who die from pneumonia due to fake and substandard drugs consumption.
The effects can be health or broader effects, which affect the socioeconomic status of individuals and the society at large. The first effect is poisoning, in 2008/2009, there was a particular drug called ‘My Pikin’, a teething syrup for children. Children died from Acute kidney injury that resulted from a component of that drug, an antifreeze called diethylene glycol.
This was a registered drug that found its way into the market. A lot of children consumed it, and this resulted to the death of some of these children, while others ended up in emergency rooms, which caused a significant loss to families and Nigeria at large,” he said.
He spoke extensively on other effects of consuming fake medications, including disease progression, high cost of treatment, adding that this was contributing largely to the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in the country.
“Another effect is Disease progression. When you take a medication for a chronic illness like hypertension, diabetes, the anticipated effect is that you will get better because you are taking medication, but when you are taking the counterfeit, it means that your disease is likely to progress.
Antibiotics resistance is also increasing because a lot of these drugs are antibiotics and they contain little active ingredients. For instance, when an individual uses an antibiotic that should contain about 500mg active ingredients, but contains 150mg, this means that this person is taking this antibiotics and they are not getting results.
Also, the microorganisms have been exposed to a lower dose of this antibiotics overtime and they gain resistance. It is one of the major problems we have. Of course, it increases cost of treatment, you keep prescribing these drugs and the patient keeps coming back not knowing that the drugs are either substandard or totally fake.
Fake medications come in different form, some come in little quantity of the active ingredients while some do not contain the active ingredients at all. In some, they replace the components with chalk, flour. While some other ones contain harmful components like diethylene glycol, indocid, mercury, cement and so on. To expand on how big this problem is, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that one in ten medicines that are consumed in lower/middle income countries is fake. One of these countries is Nigeria. This can also be said for drinks, beverages and other products that people consume,” he elaborated.
According to Dr. Ogamba, consumption of fake alcohol could result in blindness. To buttress his point, he referred to an incident, which happened in Bayelsa state, where young men in a particular community became blind after a continuous consumption of a fake local dry gin, which contained Methanol.
“Normally, humans shouldn’t consume methanol in any form because of how it affects the eye. Due to the fact that these people consumed fake dry gin, they consumed Methanol in significant amounts, which led to blindness,” he said.
He further explained the health conditions that could arise from a prolonged consumption of fake drugs, drinks, products, adding that this could lead to the failure of vital organs in the body like the liver, kidneys and heart.
“A prolonged consumption of these agents can affect the liver, kidneys, heart and this can eventually lead to failure of these organs. This applies to anything that is consumed, which has not gone through the proper processing mechanisms, or has been altered in one way or the other or which was produced in an unhygienic, unsterilized, unregulated environment. The major health conditions that arise after consumption of fake drugs, drinks, and products are liver and kidney failure. These are organs that detoxify the blood, that clear off harmful substances from the system. When they are over burdened with toxins, they fail overtime. This isn’t limited to drugs that are bought from pharmacies, herbs that have been altered with all kinds of fake products and synthetic materials are included.
As stated by Dr. Ogamba, vomiting, diarrhea, serious heartburns are signs that an individual has consumed fake drinks, food items, etc. In severe cases, like an Acute Kidney Injury, symptoms include inability to urinate, low urine output, swollen face, bloating, among others.
To avoid severe damages to the body, he shared immediate steps to take when an individual consumes a fake product.
“If you noticed that you consumed a fake product, the first thing is to visit the nearest emergency room to you. For instance, when children consume poisonous substances like Jik, parents force down palm oil down their throats and in the process, the palm oil enters the airway and causes lipoid pneumonia. A lot of times this kills the children and not even the major poison they consumed. Present the patient to the hospital as soon as possible because for every kind of poison, intoxication, toxins someone is exposed to, there are specific antidotes, dos and don’t.
He identified poor consumer education, poverty, greed, weak institutions as factors that contribute to the widespread circulation of fake products in the country, adding that these institutions aren’t strong enough to fight the problems.
“Saying one in ten drugs, drinks, and products produced in this country is fake is putting it subtly, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) once quoted 15%, some other agencies have quoted more. So we don’t even have an exact figure to ascertain the severity of this problems. Therefore, these institutions aren’t strong enough to fight these problems,” he said.
He shared some red flags which indicate that a product is fake. He urged consumers not to overlook these obvious signs when purchasing a product, they include, Poor labeling, Unusual appearance, Extremely cheap products, Subtle difference from the original product in terms of the colour, consistency, texture, taste, smell and a tweak in the name of the product.
To eradicate the circulation of fake products in Nigeria, he advised that Wholesalers should buy directly from the company which is a trusted source and Retailers should buy from trusted wholesalers. Also, individuals should report cases involving purchase of fake products to NAFDAC and the right agencies. He urged Nigerians to raise awareness on social media after confirming that a product is fake, and also warned against making money through dubious means.
He called for the proper documentation of data to aid in tackling the menace of fake drugs, drinks and products in the country.
“There is a huge gap in records of intelligence data, and this is on the part of Nigerian government. Where are these products coming from? Who are those producing these products and How many of these products are in circulation? These are questions that remain unanswered. Despite the recent raid of shops and factories producing fake products in Nigeria, we still do not know how many of these exist in different states. Data would help target your interventions and develop strategies to tackle the problem. People that break the law should be made to face the wrath. The regulatory agencies and law enforcement agencies, should fish out the perpetrators of this crime to end or reduce the circulation of fake products to the barest minimum. In conclusion, it is a fight for everyone. As an individual, you can raise awareness on social media, in churches, family , social gatherings, report suspicious environments where these products are produced,” he advised
Recall that, NAFDAC had shut down Eziukwu market (Cementery market) where adulterated beverages including wines, alcohol, soft drinks and consumables were produced in Aba, Abia State.
In a statement, Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general, revealed that the dastardly activity had been going on for a long time, adding that the perpetrators of this crime operated like a cartel threatening anyone who dares to challenge them.
According to Adeyeye, the counterfeiters involved in the production of the following wine/alcoholic beverages like Seaman Schnapps, Henessy, Four Cousins, Carlo Rossi, Jenney, Chelsea London Dry Gin, Schnapp Dry Gin, McDowells, Black Labels, Gordons, Martell, Campari and Smirnoff ice. Others are Eva wine. They also indulged in date revalidation for expired products like Coca-cola products , powdered milk, ketchup, and yoghurt.
