pharmacovigilance newsletter No 11

After I participated in the workshop on Pharmacovigilance which was organized by SIAPS/ USAID in collaboration with PFSA at Jimma some eight months back, I started to understand and visualize the magnitude of the problem and its importance as well. Thereafter, I became very interested and vowed to report ADE whenever I come across and encourage my colleagues do the same. We, health providers, well know that medicines have risks of adverse effects which need to be monitored. Though we are many in the country, we do not report adverse drug events (ADEs) when we encounter them. The reasons may be knowledge gap, uncertainty, fear of disclosing the patient’s history, not understanding its importance, carelessness etc.. But, if we do so there will be good therapeutic outcome (or the events get resolved) and patient safety will be maintained. Health care provision requires collaborative approach and hence the part played in reporting ADE by the health care providers is crucial. Moreover, workshops, printed materials, adequate and persistent education, information transmission and reporting ADE whenever encountered may reduce problems that may arise due to ADE. Above all, I want to thank the continuous and stringent supervision and follow up that SIAPS/USAID-Ethiopia has provided to us.)