Making Patients Pay for Drugs Could Breed Superbugs
People seeking cheaper treatments on the black market may be driving the global spread of drug-resistant pathogens
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Researchers tracking the global spread of antimicrobial resistant infections may have identified a new culprit: drug co-pays.
In much of the developing world, when people can't afford medicine from government health systems, they turn to informal or black markets. The pills they buy there may be lower quality, prescribed inappropriately, or dosed incorrectly. All those factors can hasten the spread of drug-resistant pathogens.