Harare (New Ziana)- The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) has appealed to the public to report side effects of medicines to help the agency make them safer.
In a statement to mark the #MedSafetyWeek, an international campaign led by Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC), the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, MCAZ director general, Richard Rukwata called on patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists to make medicines safer by reporting side effects to the statutory body.
The campaign, which runs from November 6 to 13, will see more than 80 national medicines regulatory agencies and several non-governmental organisations working together to improve the safety of medicines globally through raising awareness about the importance of reporting side effects of medicines. It is supported by WHO and by members of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA).
Under the theme ‘Who can report?’, this year’s campaign will focus on the key role of every patient, doctor, nurse, and pharmacist who reports a side effect and contributes to using medicines safely.
“All medicines agencies operate systems to detect and analyse side effects of medicines,” said Rukwata. “The purpose of safety monitoring is to gain more information about known side effects and find out about new ones. Constantly collecting and monitoring information from the reports received helps identify risks associated with medicines and take action to minimise harm.”
Since 1998, he said MCAZ had received and processed over 6 000 reports in which patients, carers, and health professionals have played key roles.
“Reporting suspected side effects to the MCAZ helps to make medicines safer for patients all around the world. In some cases, it can result in better prescribing advice, which can improve patient outcomes,” he said.
“If you, or a patient you are supporting, experience a side effect with a medicine, make sure to report it to us promptly.” Rukwata said reports about side effects can be submitted through paper-based spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) forms available from MCAZ, electronic ADR tools, and three major operating systems, Windows, MacOS desktop applications and Linux based operating systems. MCAZ also operates customer service whatsapp numbers that can be used to make reports.
MCAZ is a statutory body established by an act of Parliament, The Medicines and Allied Substances Control Act (MASCA) whose mission is to ensure access to safe, effective and good quality medical products and allied substances for the protection of public and animal health.
New Ziana
