“Reports of fraudulent medicines in the southwest Pacific island states of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have drawn attention to the need for more public awareness of the lethal trade and its tragic consequences,” Inter Press Service reports. “The extent of fraudulent pharmaceuticals in the Melanesian islands is unknown, but the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reported that 47 percent of anti-malarial medicines tested more widely in the South East Asian region are fake,” the news service writes, adding, “The human cost of the illegal trade can include treatment failure, death and increased drug resistance to critical diseases.” IPS examines the response to the problem in several of the region’s countries (Wilson, 9/30).