ZAMRA counsels society on drugs safety

ANDREW MUKOMAwrites@SunZambianTHE Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) says that for pharmacovigilance system to function effectively, it requires the active participation of all stakeholders.Pharmacovigilance (PV or PhV), also known as drug safety, is the pharmacological science relating to the collection, detection, assess-ment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products.ZAMRA Director General Bernice Mwale has said that, it is imperative for stakeholders such as the media, members of the public, aca-demia scientists, hospitals, public health programs, cooperating partners and health healthcare providers to take part.She said this during the ongoing Southern Province Pharmacovigilance advocacy training workshop for healthcare providers in Living-stone yesterday.Ms Mwale said that healthcare providers are at the heart of any Pharmacovigilance system and play a pivotal role in ensuring that safety information, including, adverse drug reaction, product quality problems and medicine errors are promptly reported to the authority.She said that this is in order for causality assessment and decision making to be at play.“I therefore call upon healthcare providers to engage, and collaborate with the authority in the implementation of Pharmacovigilance activi-ties so as to ensure safe and rational use of medicine,” Ms Mwale said.“It cannot be overemphasized that Pharmacovigilance is a critical component of healthcare services as is a tool which facilitates timely de-cision making and intervention,” she saidMeanwhile, the ZAMRA Director General informed participants that ZAMRA has revised the Pharmacovigilance trainers manual, Pharma-covigilance reference and Pharmacovigilance handbook, in partnership with Global Fund, Ministry of Health and Churches Health Associa-tion of Zambia.