Action urged against fake TB drugs

While health authorities have been combatting fake malaria drugs for years, they have paid little attention to TB medications. But a study published in February found that 9.1% of samples of the two most powerful TB drugs—isoniazid and rifampicin—purchased at private pharmacies in 19 cities in 17 countries lacked the proper amount of active pharmaceutical ingredient and failed basic quality-control tests. The failure rate was 16.6% in Africa and 10.1% in India. If drugs don't contain enough active ingredient, patients' TB bacteria can easily become resistant to them.