Tanzania: Tmda Fights Against Counterfeits in Lake Zone

By Daily News Reporter in Mwanza

TANZANIA Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA) said it has deployed intensive surveillance to tackle smuggled substandard medical products through...

informal ports along Lake Victoria shores.

According to TMDA's Lake Zone Manager, Sophia Mziray, the authority has beefed up efforts to sweep out substandard medicines and medical devices from the local market and protect public health.

Ms Mziray said the authority has assigned enough officials at formal ports along the Lake, but controlling imports via informal ports has been a big challenge.

"We have, therefore, put more efforts on market surveillance in collaboration with residents who tip us over the presence of suspected poor products. We are glad to announce that fake products have largely disappeared across Lake Zone regions," she said.

Ms Mziray was briefing information officers from institutions under the ministry of health, community development, gender, elderly and children who were accompanied with journalists in a visit to the TMDA's Lake Zone office.

The officers and journalists were in a media campaign dubbed; 'Tumeboresha Sekta ya Afya'.

East African countries share Lake Victoria as a means of transport and for economic activities mainly fishing.

Several cargos that are destined to any of these countries are shipped through this Lake, thus facilitating trade in the region.

However, unscrupulous traders are said to use informal ports to import poor products in the local market.

The ministry has come up with the campaign in order to provide media platforms to explain about improvements which have positively affected health services provision in the country during four years of President John Magufuli.

"During the past four years, we have seen significant decrease of products that don't meet standards," she stated, noting that in 2017/18 the authority identified and destroyed 1,067 tonnes of substandard products in the market while in 2018/19 the number went down to 53.75 tonnes.

She said the decrease proved that control measures have been strengthened and traders were complying with the laws and regulations.

On other hand, in the past four years, over 1100 samples of medicines went through laboratory tests in the Lake Zone, and results showed that 96 per cent of them met quality standards.

"This indicates that the market in the Lake Zone is safe from substandard medicines and medical devices," she assured.

The TMDA has further spread awareness to the public over how to get rid of consuming substandard medicines. The authority has reached out to over 167,200 members of the public in awareness campaigns.