Bogus antimalarials sold in Cambodia

Bogus antimalarials sold in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (AP): Bogus malaria medication is being sold in Cambodia, threatening many of the 80,000 infected people here, health officials warned on Monday.

Low-priced versions of antimalarial medicines Mefloquine and Artesunate were recently found to be fakes packaged in bottles nearly indistinguishable from those used for the real medicine, he said.

Health officials estimate that 0.7 percent of Cambodians, about 80,000, are infected with malaria, which is passed to humans by mosquitoes.

While deadly, malaria is easily cured if quickly and properly treated. About 5,000 Cambodians still die annually from the disease, indicative of the county's poor health care and extreme poverty, especially in rural areas where malarial mosquitoes thrive.