The National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said in Abuja on Thursday that it has established toll-free platform for feedback on adverse drug reactions.
Mrs Adeline Osakwe, the Coordinator, National Pharmacovigilance Centre of NAFDAC, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
She urged MTN, Etisalat and Glo subscribers to text messages to 20543.
Osakwe advised the public to regard such reports as important, stressing that the information would facilitate the agency’s work in safe guarding the health of Nigerians.
“If we get 1000 reports and only one is genuine, we won’t mind.
“We want people to report as much as possible so that we will begin to document what is happening to Nigerians when they use certain medicines.
“For instance, if you take a drug for stomach ache and you react to it, you could just text `I took this medicine and my stomach is on fire.
“When the information gets to us, we will call and interview you to get additional information that will enable us to determine whether it is actually an adverse drug reaction.
“If it is serious, we can refer the person to a hospital because we do not do clinical management of problem, we do documentation.
“This information will help us to assist the person and the general public because with the information we get, we get to know the people that should not take certain medicines.
“We can document it and use all the information we have gathered to make a decision. That way, we will now communicate and help the public,’’ she said.