The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was created and empowered by Decree 15 of 1993 as amended, by Decree 19 of 1999 and now the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act Cap No 1 Laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004. The Act mandates NAFDAC to regulate and control the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, detergents, medical devices and packaged water (regulated products). The vision of NAFDAC is; to safe guard the public Health of the Nation and their Mission is; to safeguard the public health by ensuring that only the right quality food, drugs and other regulated products are manufactured, exported, imported, advertised, sold and used.
In as much as Nigerians across the divide have given NAFDAC a pass mark in the fight against counterfeit and fake drugs in Nigeria, little or nothing have been done by the agency as regard ridding the drug market of “expired” drugs. The expiration date of pharmaceuticals specifies the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of the drug. It is a fact that most drugs get expired even before their expiry date. This is caused by poor storage facilities, poor transportation network, extreme weather and climate and environmental factors. It is important to keep in mind that the expiry date of a particular drug was determined through testing of previously unopened products, stored in its original container and under a standard weather and climatic condition of temperature. Once you open a bottle, or transfer it to another container (like a prescription vial), the manufacturer’s expiry date is no longer reliable.
In Kogi state, owners of local drug shops and vendors are smiling to the banks at the detriment of the health of the public. These mobile drug vendors who are commonly seen in the various farm settlements across the state where the level of literacy is relatively lower takes advantage and financially exploits the rural people at the expense of their health. It is noteworthy that government at various levels are doing their best in trying to bring quality healthcare to the rural populace, but a lot still needed to be done as their current best seem not good enough. The inability of government to provide ample and the right drugs in dispensaries across the state has created a lacuna in our healthcare delivery system to which the vendors are taking an advantage.
Considering the harmful and toxic effect in the usage of “expired” drugs, NAFDAC in partnership with the kogi state Ministry of Health should urgently beam its searchlight on the activities of the local drug shops popularly called “chemists” and mobile drug vendors who handles and stores drugs in ways that compromise the efficacy and potency of the medicines, making them dangerous for use even before the expiry date. Pharmaceutics are meant to be kept and stored under a certain range of temperature and climatic conditions which are not always adhered strictly to by the “chemists” and vendors. Even though the expiry date inscribed by the manufacturer of these medicines states otherwise, one may not be wrong to conclude that about 80 percent of drugs in the local drug shops are already expired and therefore dangerous to health.
Because of their spread and proximity to the rural people, most kogites patronize the “chemists” and mobile vendors, apart from the fact that their drugs are relatively cheaper compared to the ones of the standard and sophisticated pharmaceutical stores, these makes the “chemists” and mobile vendors a destination of choice for low income earners and the poor in Kogi state. Hence, the need for NAFDAC and the state Ministry of Health to do more at safe guarding the health of Kogites by constantly sending out a task force to checkmate activities of mobile drug vendors and to flush out, sanction and close down any “chemist” which didn’t adhere strictly to standard in the storage of drugs. The health and wellbeing of poor Kogites are equally as important as that of the rich. A healthy state is a wealthy one. To this end, the relevant department in NAFDAC and the state Ministry of Health should be adequately empowered by law to prevent the poor masses from consuming poisons as drugs.
– Hussain Obaro writes from Lokoja, Kogi State
oseniobaro@yahoo.com
