VOA慢速英語：世衛(wèi)組織稱發(fā)展中國家近10%藥品是假藥

WHO: 10 Percent of Drugs in Developing Countries Are Fake

世衛(wèi)組織稱發(fā)展中國家近10%藥品是假藥

The World Health Organization (WHO) says one of every 10 medicines sold in developing countries is either fake or of poor quality.

世衛(wèi)組織表示，發(fā)展中國家所銷售的藥品中有近10%要么是假藥，要么質量很差。

In a report this week, WHO officials said fake or substandard drugs are to blame for tens of thousands of children dying. These deaths could be easily prevented, officials said.

世衛(wèi)組織官員在本周的一份報告中指出，假藥或者劣質藥是數以萬計兒童死亡的元兇。官員們表示，這些死亡原本可以輕松避免。

Trying to understand the problem, experts looked at 100 studies, all of which were completed between 2007 and 2016. The studies examined use of more than 48,000 drugs.

為了弄清這個問題，有關專家查看了100項全部都在2007年到2016年期間完成的研究。這些研究調查了4.8萬多種藥物的使用情況。

The experts found that 10.5 percent of the drugs were not what they appeared to be.

專家們發(fā)現，這些藥物有10.5%是假藥。

Drugs for treating malaria and bacterial infections were responsible for nearly 65 percent of the fake medicines.

用于治療瘧疾和細菌感染的藥物占到了假藥的近65%。

A statement from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was released with the report. He asked people to imagine a mother who uses her money for medicine instead of food and then sees her child die because the medicine was of poor quality or falsified.

這份報告還同時發(fā)表了世衛(wèi)組織總干事特德羅斯·阿達諾姆·蓋布雷耶蘇斯(Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus)的一份聲明。他讓人們想象一下，一位母親拿錢買藥而不是買食物，然而因為這些藥物質量很差或者是假藥，眼睜睜地看著孩子死亡。

"This is unacceptable," he said.

他說：“這是沒法接受的。”

Poor countries spend about $300 billion a year for medications. WHO officials said that means the fake drug industry is worth of an estimated $30 billion.

貧窮國家每年在藥物上花費大約3千億美元。世衛(wèi)組織官員表示，這意味著假藥產業(yè)價值近300億美元。

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimates that 116,000 people die each year from fake anti-malaria medication in African countries south of the Sahara Desert.

倫敦衛(wèi)生與熱帶醫(yī)學院估計每年在撒哈拉以南非洲國家，有11.6萬人死于假冒的抗瘧疾藥物。

In 2013, WHO officials launched a worldwide system for following fake and compromised drugs. It has received reports about nearly 1,500 problematic medicines, including drugs for the heart, diabetes, fertility, mental health and cancer. WHO also noted problems with fake vaccines for diseases such as yellow fever.

2013年，世衛(wèi)組織官員啟動了一個全球性的追蹤假冒偽劣藥品的系統。它已經收到了近1500種問題藥物的報告，包括用于治療心臟病、糖尿病、生育、精神健康和癌癥的藥物。世衛(wèi)組織還指出了黃熱病等疾病的假疫苗問題。

WHO believes the examples of fake medicine it found are only "a small fraction" of the real problem because many fake drugs are not reported.

世衛(wèi)組織認為，它發(fā)現的假藥案例只是冰山一角，因為很多假藥都沒有報道出來。

Officials credited the system with saving the lives of more than 20 children in Paraguay. Tests showed the children had swallowed a contaminated drug. The drug was in a cough medicine that had killed 60 people in Pakistan just a few months earlier.

官員們認為，這個系統在巴拉圭挽救了20多名兒童的性命。有關檢測顯示，這些兒童服用了一種受污染的藥物。這是一種止咳藥，幾個月前在巴基斯坦導致了60多人死亡。

I'm Susan Shand.

蘇珊·珊德報道。