In Malawi, drug stores and private clinics have become as common as grocery stalls, sprouting in towns and villages alike.

Most are run by trained medical professionals who, beyond their calling to heal, have embraced entrepreneurship to supplement meagre government salaries.

Yet this pursuit of profit has opened a dangerous trade. Behind the counters, pharmacies are quietly breaking the law, selling prescriptiononly sexual enhancement pills, the so called blue tablets, without medical approval.

In this article, reporters Innocent Kumchedwa and Eamon Piringu investigate how the very people entrusted to save lives are fuelling a silent crisis.

Their findings reveal a deadly pattern: men lured by promises of pleasure are buying the pills freely, unaware of the risks. From January to June alone, five have died. What began as a side business for survival has become a perilous gamble with human life.