STEVE UNEGBU, Umuahia
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called on Nigerians to be vigilant, pay attention to how the body reacts to medication, as well as report fake drugs to the Agency.
Speaking at the Stakeholders engagement programme with the theme,’ Grassroots community sensitization on pharmacovigilance’ organized by NAFDAC in partnership with the Immunization Plus Malaria process by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming service ( IMPACT) held at Rapha Hotel Umuahia, the representative of the Director General NAFDAC Anulika Princess Nwosu said the Agency has been doing a lot to reduce proliferation of fake drugs in Nigeria.
She added that NAFDAC is using some drug check App to verify the authenticity of drugs, such as Mobile Authentication Service( MAS), which uses scratch codes and short message service, among others.
She pointed out that the Agency is collaborating with other sister agencies like Drug Law Enforcement Agency to curb the Menace of drug abuse, while urging consumers to report suspicious drugs to the nearest NAFDAC office.
In her speech, the NAFDAC Focal person, Njoku Helen Noble, said part of the sensitization was on drug abuse,which means using substances in a way that it is harmful to the body, mind and society.
Njoku explained that people embarked on drug abuse due to peer pressure, stress, lack of parental guidance.
She noted that it has effects such as mental health problems, organ damage, addiction, poor memory, social effects like dropping out of school, violence, crime, prostitution, broken homes, poverty etc.
She advised community leaders and parents to monitor the youths in their environment.
Earlier, the Coordinator NAFDAC Abia State, Dr Ejike Nnamani, said NAFDAC is working so hard to implement the knowledge for change component through targeted Social Behavior Change Communication strategies. said the goal of the initiative is to strengthen the monitoring of medicinal products by institutionalizing pharmacovigilance across Nigeria using effective Social Behavior Change Communication strategy approaches.
He harped on the importance and benefits of pharmacovigilance, such as reporting of adverse drug reactions, use of substandard and falsified products.
He further explained that it will promote patient safety and enhance public health outcomes, adding that bringing drug safety monitoring to the community level will make communities active stakeholders in the NAFDAC pharmacovigilance system.
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