Attitude of University Students towards Fake Drugs in Sokoto Northwest, Nigeria

Drug counterfeiting is a serious public health challenge frequently associated with grave consequences that include treatment failure, drug resistance to microbes and even mortality beside its effect in causing colossal wastage of resources and human productivity globally. The current study is cross sectional, observational in design aimed at investigating the level of awareness and attitudes of students at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria to the problem of drug counterfeiting so as to contribute to the pool of knowledge on fake drugs. Self administered, semi-structured validated questionnaires were used to generate data from four hundred and two (402) undergraduate students of the University. The respondents were selected by stratified random sampling. Data was analysed using Grap pad Instant software to calculate Proportions, Percentages, Odds and Confidence intervals. The mean age of respondents was 26.6±5 years, male: female of 3:1. Twenty-five (25%) of respondents were unaware of, while 22.4% had no knowledge of any hazard associated with fake drugs. The most frequently encountered class of unregistered drug was analgesics/antipyretics. The study revealed paucity of awareness on the problems of drug counterfeiting among the students in our locality, thus indicating the need for effective intervention through public awareness campaign.