NAFDAC trains health workers on pharmacovigilance in Kaduna

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said it has trained no fewer than 45 medical professionals on pharmacovigilance in Kaduna State.

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NAFDAC’s Coordinator in the state, Mr Nasiru Mato, disclosed this in an interview with the Newsmen on Thursday in Kaduna.

He listed the professionals to include
medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, consultant pediatricians and physicians from public hospitals, military – based health facilities and private health centres.

Mato said the training was conducted to acquaint the participants on the use of Med Safety App and adverse drug reaction via E – Reporting, in line with the extant global best practices.

“Among the core objectives of pharmacovigilance is ensuring the safety of medicines,” he said.

He added that the training was also to make the medical practitioners
understand the legal and regulatory framework for drug safety monitoring.
This, Mato said, is in order to effectively implement pharmacovigilance by ensuring the overall safety in the use of medicine.

He added: ”We trained them to know the benefits of pharmacovigilance, have adequate knowledge of the reporting tools and processes of adverse drug reaction(ADR) reporting and the roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders.”

According to Mato, pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of ADRs or any other drug -related problems such as drug abuse, misuse, medication errors, lack of efficacy and counterfeits.

He said: ”It is aimed at getting the best outcome of treatment with medicines. Pharmacovigilance ensures patient safety by providing a system for a continual monitoring of medicine use. This is by putting in place measures to minimise risks and providing appropriate and timely information to relevant stakeholders to ensure the rational use of medicines in the healthcare system,” he added.

Mato added that pharmacovigilance was needed to prevent drug-induced human suffering and avoid financial risks associated with unexpected adverse effects.

The NAFDAC boss said, “Pharmacovigilance is generally all about rational and safe use of medicine.”

NAN/Wumi