Counterfeit prescription drugs are a real and growing threat to health and safety. By learning more about these drugs, Americans can help ensure that they get safe, genuine medicine when they need it.

The U.S.-based Center for Medicine in the Public Interest predicts that counterfeit drug sales will reach $75 billion globally in 2010, an increase of more than 90 percent from 2005.

Recently, the European Commission released figures showing that there has been a dramatic increase in pharmaceutical counterfeiting, with seizures in Europe hitting an all-time high of more than 2.5 million items. The U.S. is not immune. The last five years have seen a tripling of seizures of counterfeit drugs by U.S. Customs.

Drug counterfeiting is reaching crisis proportions.

•According to The New York Times, counterfeit glycerin from China led to mass poisonings and death in China, Panama, Haiti, Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria and India.

•According to the World Health Organization, there are 200,000 or more deaths a year as the result of fake medicine.

•WHO estimates that a fifth of the 1 million annual deaths from malaria would be prevented if all medicines for it were genuine and taken properly.

•According to The Hamilton Spectator, a woman in Hamilton, Ontario, suffered a minor stroke as the result of taking medicine she obtained from a Canadian pharmacy, medicine she later learned was fake.

•A woman in St. Louis who was battling breast cancer took a medication prescribed by her doctor only to get sicker. She learned that the medication she was taking was a counterfeit prescription, originating from a counterfeiting ring in Miami.

•WHO reported that a young woman in Argentina died of liver failure after receiving toxic counterfeit treatments for anemia.

The World Health Organization cautions against purchasing medicines over the Internet from sites that conceal their physical address. According to WHO, the medicines on these sites are counterfeit in more than 50 percent of the cases.

The Food and Drug Administration advises people to proceed with caution when purchasing medications. One of the best places to get uptotheminute information on the topic of drug counterfeiting is the website www.BuySafeDrugs.info.

This story is provided by North American Precis Syndicate Inc.