The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called on stakeholders and Nigerians to lead vigilance against antimicrobial resistance and adverse drug resistance to medicines/drugs.
Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made the call on Wednesday, during a one-day pharmacovigilance workshop and stakeholders town hall meeting in Enugu.
Represented by the NAFDAC’s Director, South-East Zone, Festus Ukadike, the director-general noted that the gravest consequences of irrational medicine use today is adverse drug resistance.
She explained that the misuse and overuse of antibiotics had accelerated the emergence of resistant microorganisms that no longer respond to conventional treatment.
“This means that infections previously treatable with common antibiotics are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to manage.
“If urgent action is not taken, antimicrobial resistance may reverse decades of medical progress and place humanity at serious risk.
“This is why pharmacovigilance is extremely important. Pharmacovigilance refers to the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine-related problems.
“In simple terms, pharmacovigilance helps us ensure that medicines remain safe and effective even after they have been approved and released into the market,” she said.
Prof. Adeyeye noted that no medicine is completely free from side effects.
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“However, through effective pharmacovigilance systems, healthcare professionals and patients can identify harmful reactions early, report them appropriately, and help regulatory authorities take necessary actions to protect the public,” she said.
She said that pharmacovigilance remains a core mandate of the agency, adding that stakeholders and general public should play active part in monitoring antimicrobial resistance and adverse drug resistance to ensure effectiveness of medicine and treatment.
Chairman, Enugu State Traditional Rulers’ Council, Igwe Samuel Asadu, commended NAFDAC for the workshop, while urging the agency to put more efforts in curbing the sale of fake medicines in the hinterlands.
Asadu said that pharmacovigilance is needed more in the hinterlands of the state to stop people paddling fake medicines and “selling outright chalk as medicine in villages in the state.”
