17/06/2026
🚨 Please take a minute to read this. It could save someone's life.
Last week, I nearly collapsed at work after taking an antimalarial medicine.
I developed malaria and, like many Nigerians, I went to get treatment. I purchased Lonart DS and completed the full course as instructed, expecting to recover.
But instead of getting better, I became much worse.
I felt so unwell that I almost fainted at work.
As a medical doctor, I knew something was not adding up.
I checked the pack carefully and compared it with available guidance on identifying counterfeit medicines. I also scratched the authentication panel and sent the verification code to 38353 as instructed on the pack, but received no response.
The batch was:
📌 Lonart DS
📌 Batch No: T3ACH020
This experience took me back to several years ago when I served as Nigeria's focal person for a WHO-funded, multi-country medicine quality assessment project coordinated through IPPF (Catherine Kilfedder) and implemented by Concept Foundation.
That project exposed me to the dangers that poor-quality and falsified medicines can pose to patients and communities.
Back then, it was professional work.
Last week, it became personal.
And it made me ask:
If a doctor can unknowingly take a suspected falsified medicine, what happens to millions of Nigerians who buy medicines every day without the ability to verify them?
How many people keep treating malaria again and again because the medicine is not working?
How many children develop complications because treatment failed?
This is not just about one drug.
This is about medicine quality.
This is about patient safety.
This is about protecting lives.
Please buy medicines from trusted sources, verify your medicines where possible, and report suspicious products.
We need stronger awareness, surveillance, and action against substandard and falsified medicines in Nigeria.
