The Eastern regional branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana has intensified efforts to dealing with the influx of counterfeit drugs and the illicit use of drugs while ensuring professional practices among Pharmacists in the region.
The World Health Organization Report estimates that each year, over 800,000 people, most of whom from Ghana and other parts of Africa, die because of fake drugs as they are less expensive and more accessible than the original ones.
The fake drug smuggling business is estimated to worth over 400 billion euros, more profitable than the sale of illicit drugs hence becoming a booming business at the peril of innocent lives.
Research has indicated that the production, distribution, and consumption of fake and sub-standard drugs, regardless of form, reason or quantity, approach taken can be titanic in health implications.
Speaking to Starr News Thursday at Akosombo during the Annual General Meeting and launch of the 2017 Regional version of the World Pharmacists Day, the Eastern Regional Chairman of Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, (PSGH) , Pharm Silas Agyekum stated that the fight against fake drugs must start from the country’s boarder, a decision which requires political commitment .
“Fake drugs on the market of every country also has to do with the Political will of the government. It means that we bring into question the integrity of our borders because that is the first point of call when we talk of influx of any goods from other countries. So we as professional bodies, we’ve always been engaging government to beef up the security measures on our borders and provide them with the necessary resources to bring to book people who have made it a business to smuggle in fake drugs”.
Engagements and Awareness Creation
According to Pharm Silas Agyekum, the PSGH has intensified its stakeholder engagement and public Awareness creation on fake drugs and illicit drug patronage to help deal with the menace and curb the abuse of tramadol drug among the youth. He said several awareness creation activities have been lined up as part of the celebration of the World Pharmacists Day which will be marked in Ghana on September 26, 2017.
“As a professional body internally, we do a lot of engagements with all other stakeholders, we go to churches, mosques, schools and market areas to educate the people about wrong purchases because we realized that people purchase drugs anywhere at any point in town. We advise that people seek first, the advice of a pharmacist.”
He added: ” So we will continue to intensify our public education to create the needed awareness that fake drugs exist, also one profession that can help identify is pharmacists; you can buy a drug and a pharmacist can help you know whether it is a fake drug “.
Inadequate Pharmacists in the Region
The Regional Chairman of PSG, Pharm Silas Agyekum, mentioned that the inadequate pharmacists in the region has been an obstacle to supervision of the medicine supply chain.
“We have over 3 million population in the Eastern region, as we speak we have a little over 90 pharmacists to serve 3 million people and if you divide, you will have one pharmacist to over 4000 patients and it is highly unacceptable far below World health organization standard ratio”.
Pharmacy Council
The Eastern Regional Manager of Pharmacy Council, Mrs. Brenda Yayra Oppong told Starr News as a regulatory body, they do post-market surveillance in the interest of the public with the collaboration of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Police.
“As a council, our mandate is to secure in the public interest, the best practices in pharmacy so there are a number of things that we do to ensure that pharmacy practice is optimum .We license facilities to be sure that the people providing the services are licensed by us. Again we go on inspections to make sure that the right things are being done in the pharmacies. These will ensure that pharmacy will be practice in the best way. Again too we go-rounds, we do swoops on drug peddlers, we seize their goods so that wholesome medicines will be offered to the public, not medicines being sold under the sun the rain and unhygienic environment. So we make sure that the public is safe “.
She, however, expressed concerns over peddling of potential counterfeit drugs in the region. “We are seriously concerned, so when we are doing our monitoring we look out for these fake medicines as well, in some cases, we even invite the police and turn these people over to the Police for the appropriate sanctions “.
Source:Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/Kojo Ansah
