Travelers are more prone to counterfeit medicine than any other person. If not the medicine they end up getting the wrong medication. When you are considering getting some medicine its best to buy from well established and well known pharmaceuticals. Most unknowing travelers end up with counterfeit medication because they sought medical advice from counterfeit medical practitioners. Follow your instincts, if you really doubt a certain pharmacy don’t purchase from them, if it’s possible get reviews from locals, they know the best places to buy the best medicines. Here are some tips to help you avoid purchasing counterfeit medication.
Check on lettering and compare with other products
Once you are given the medicine package, first inspect it, genuinely branded pharmaceutical products must have high quality packaging, mostly printed boxes. After this, ensure the print is vivid and strong colors used too must be strong and resemble other packages on display.
Check packaging quality
Writing on the package should be clear and well spelt any misspelling should raise alarm and questioning. Open the products box and see to it that it has an instruction piece of paper, check if the name matches that of the pack. Most instruction papers from companies are inscribed in several languages, yours should have several languages too.
Check for genuine expiry date
Read the pharmaceutical packaging, note the hologram, the inserted paper and the best before date, check if it corresponds with that of your medicine especially if the medicine in form of syrup. Something else, genuine pharmaceutical packages have indented expiry dates as well as batch dates, confirm this and better still run your finger against them.
Avoid unpacked medicine
Never buy medicine that is being sold from opened huge bottles and repacked to smaller bottles, chances of the medicine being counterfeit are way too high.(image by epSos .de).
Writings and inscriptions
Inspect the blister packs and check for poor foil printing, if misspelled, faded or made from cheap looking foils, leave the medicines, chances of being counterfeit are highest. Inspect the tablets too, if they look out of order, cracked, swollen, misshapen or if there are slightest issues regarding the quality of the packaging, then they might not be genuine products. Company graded pharmaceuticals have logos inscribed on them, especially on the pills or tablets, if the names seem to be of lower grade or even seem to be carelessly inscribed, take caution. Request the pharmacist to show you other brands of the drugs and compare them, inspect the packets and if they resemble pick the one that seems to be the best amongst all.
Ask questions
Never hesitate to question the pharmacist, ask them which drug is better and the reasons, listen to the answers, if they find difficulty in answering the questions or mentions something related to being fake, take caution, you better leave the pharmacy and get to another one, after all they are always found in plenty’s.
Inquire from a taxi driver, a hotel worker or a shop attendant to help you get a place where you can get a legitimate pharmacy, no matter the distance, health comes first, go for the quality products. If you happen to be traveling when ill, it’s advisable to get a prescription from home even before you travel.
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Feature image by United States Government Work