More action needed to curb adverse effects of consumption of drugs – health ministry
BY Bakar Ssettumba
The Ministry of Health has challenged pharmacists to increase vigilance and reporting on the adverse effects of drugs. The call was made Wednesday by the Director of Curative Services at the Ministry, Dr Charles Olara, during the opening of the 6th Pharmacovigilance stakeholders meeting in Kampala.
The call follows concerns that although consumers of medicines continue to get adverse effects, not many of these cases are captured by the government.
The meeting was held under the theme; A wholistic approach to medication without harm.
According to the National Drug Authority (NDA), the necessity for greater monitoring capacity has been especially important in the past 2 – 3 years of the pandemic which saw several treatment initiatives commissioned in research studies, and some in routine COVID-19 care.
The Authority also notes that mass vaccination against the Virus saw very many people inoculated in a very short space of time. Usually, such large population exposures to new drugs require robust and sensitive structures to monitor adverse outcomes.
Dr. Olara noted that Uganda still has a long way in building drug efficacy systems, having started the process as recently as 2012.
“Our drug safety monitoring systems are still not yet mature so we really need to be able to look at the matter keenly,” he told stakeholders largely composed of pharmacists in the public and the private sectors.
“We need to be vigilant and contribute information on the safety of our drugs,” he added.
According to the Ministry of Health, 1 in every 20 patients report adverse drug effects.
Pharmacovigilance revolves around patient safety throughout care. When prescribing a drug, the medic must ensure that the benefits of the chosen medicine outweigh the associated risks.
An effective pharmacovigilance system collects, assesses, and disseminates drug safety data in a timely manner with the purpose of enhancing patient safety risk through mitigation actions.
The Acting Commissioner for pharmaceuticals in the Ministry Morris Seru challenged pharmacists to rise up to the challenge of ensuring drug quality to minimize cases of adverse effects of consumption.
“At what point does the medicine become substandard? Is it at the point of manufacture, at the point of transportation or during distribution and storage?” he queried.
Recently, the government set up a system in which Regional Referral Hospitals take centre stage in tracking the adverse effects of drug consumption within the areas they serve. The data generated at this level is transmitted to the national pharmacovigilance subcommittee at the NDA for processing.
The Secretary to the Authority David Nahamya called for strengthening of the tracking system.
“Instances of drug inefficacy or undesirable safety might occur (among consumers). When they do, remediation actions must be informed by understanding of why they occur. This can only be achieved by having access to information on the drug from when it was manufactured, through its distribution up to the user”, he said.
