NAFDAC warns against drug misuse, self-medication

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is emphasizing the critical need for rational medicine use across Nigeria to enhance patient safety and improve health outcomes.

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Medicines save lives, reduce suffering, prevent complications, and improve quality of life. However, when medicines are misused, overused, underused, or improperly prescribed, they can become dangerous and even life-threatening.

During a sensitization program in Mushin, Lagos, NAFDAC's Director of Pharmacovigilance, Uchenna Elemuwa, stated that while medicines save lives, their misuse can be dangerous. She noted that practices like self-medication, antibiotic abuse, incorrect dosing, and the use of counterfeit drugs contribute to treatment failures, adverse reactions, prolonged illnesses, and avoidable deaths.

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These practices contribute significantly to treatment failure, adverse drug reactions, prolonged illness, increased healthcare costs, disability, and avoidable deaths.

Elemuwa specifically pointed to antimicrobial resistance as a grave consequence of irrational antibiotic use, leading to infections that are increasingly difficult and expensive to manage. She underscored the importance of pharmacovigilance, the science of detecting and preventing adverse drug effects, as a crucial tool for public protection.

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The misuse and overuse of antibiotics have accelerated the emergence of resistant microorganisms. This means infections that were once easily treatable are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to manage.

NAFDAC urged healthcare professionals and the public to report adverse drug reactions, emphasizing that collective responsibility is key to ensuring safe medicine use. The agency stressed that patient safety begins with the rational use of medicines, aiming for them to heal rather than harm. The Mushin Local Government Chairman, Tunbosun Aruwe, pledged support for NAFDAC's initiatives to promote medication safety at the community level.

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No medicine is completely free from side effects. However, through effective pharmacovigilance systems, harmful reactions can be identified early and necessary actions taken to protect the public.