Dozens of patients suffering from cancer could be dying in Ohio from taking counterfeit drugs. An alarming 10% of all imported medicines in Ohio are counterfeit says Dr. Tim Johnson, President, American Association of Pharmaceuticals.
Most of the counterfeit drugs originate from Asian countries with the main culprits being India and China. The recent survey by AAP raises pertinent questions on the ability of the monitoring agencies to effectively regulate and monitor the sale of drugs (Grey, 6).
Doctors are concerned that cancer patients especially might have needlessly died by unknowingly consuming the counterfeit drugs. A senior doctor at the Ohio State Hospital has expressed concern over the high number of patients dying in the early stages of treatment noting that the phenomenon could be “attributable to the fake drugs.”
Sources indicate that the drugs are shipped from Asian countries via the Ohio Port where corrupt officials receive up to USD 10,000 to clear the containers. A junior official at the port told me in confidence that senior port and state officials are involved in the illicit trade, explaining the high prevalence of fake drugs in the state.
Residents risk fatal microbial contamination
Thousands of residents of Ohio State are at the risk of being infected with the deadly e-coli virus amid revelations that about 10% of farmers in the state are using effluent from the city as fertilizer for their crops.
A recent fact finding mission to farms adjacent to the city revealed that farmers were using raw sewage from leaking sewers as cheap alternative and “productive” fertilizer for their crops. One farmer who lives in a shack cited the high cost of commercial fertilizer and the “productivity of the sewage” as the main reason for her practice. The case reveals inefficiencies in the Health and Agricultural Departments in monitoring food and agricultural practices that could have adverse effect on human and animal health (Hauge 24).
Microbial contamination caused by raw sewage could cause fatal viral infections and ingestion of dangerous heavy metals such as lead which have been prove to cause among other things mental retardation.
Works Cited
Michael Hauge. Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay
or Novel Read. London: Michael Wiese Productions, 2006. Print.
Zane Grey. The Young Pitcher. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print.
