Yet this is a criminal enterprise-traces of MDMA (ecstasy) in fake medications attest to the fact that the same machines used to press narcotics are hauled into service for counterfeit drugs-and it is a serious threat to public health. The Cambodian studies are rare exceptions: elsewhere the extent of the counterfeit trade is unknown. The consequences, on the other hand, can be for all to see. During its 1995 meningitis epidemic, Niger unknowingly inoculated some 50000 citizens with a fake vaccine, resulting in 2500 needless deaths. The same year, dozens of children in Haiti died after consuming a paracetamol cough syrup that contained a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.
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