The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called on Nigerians and healthcare stakeholders to heighten vigilance against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and adverse drug reactions (ADR), warning that the misuse of antibiotics threatens to reverse decades of medical progress.
Speaking at a pharmacovigilance workshop and stakeholders’ town hall meeting in Enugu on Wednesday, NAFDAC Director-General Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye said the most serious consequence of irrational medicine use today is AMR.
Represented by the agency’s South-East Zonal Director, Dr Festus Ukadike, she explained that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics have 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,” she said. “If urgent action is not taken, antimicrobial resistance may place humanity at serious risk.”
Prof. Adeyeye emphasised that no medicine is completely free from side effects, making pharmacovigilance — the science of detecting, assessing, understanding and preventing adverse effects — critically important.
“Pharmacovigilance helps us ensure that medicines remain safe and effective even after they have been approved and released into the market,” she said. “Through effective systems, healthcare professionals and patients can identify harmful reactions early, report them appropriately, and help regulatory authorities take necessary actions to protect the public.”
The WHO State Coordinator, Dr Adaeze Ugwu, reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to supporting NAFDAC in strengthening food and healthcare systems nationwide.
Dr Oliver Ezemba, Chairman of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers, urged Nigerians to report any irregularities observed while using medication, noting that such reports would benefit many others using the same products.
The Chairman of the Enugu State Traditional Rulers’ Council, Igwe Samuel Asadu, commended NAFDAC for the workshop and called for greater efforts to curb the sale of fake medicines in rural areas. He said pharmacovigilance is urgently needed in the hinterlands, where counterfeiters sell “outright chalk as medicine”.
He pledged the support of traditional rulers to help NAFDAC check the activities of fake medicine peddlers, adding: “We see our people die due to their activities.”
Participants at the event were encouraged to report suspected AMR or ADR cases through the NAFDAC Med Safety mobile app. The workshop also featured a presentation titled ‘The Need for Effective Pharmacovigilance by All’, delivered by agency officials Mr Chidi Uche and Mrs Ogechi Udeh.