Millennium Development Goal 8E aims for affordable access to essential medicines. Essential medicines, as defined by WHO, are those that “satisfy the health-care needs of the majority of the population” and that should therefore “be available at all times in adequate amounts”. However, there... is a category of medicines that faces a unique challenge in terms of availability. These are the medicines governed by the international conventions on narcotic and psychotropic substances. “Controlled medicines” is the common definition for pharmaceuticals whose active principles are listed under the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the 1972 Protocol, such as morphine and methadone; the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, such as diazepam and buprenorphine; and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, such as ergometrine and ephedrine. The conventions list substances in “Schedules” according to their different levels of potential for abuse and harm, and the commensurate severity of control measures to be applied by countries.
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Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience a high disease burden for epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition.The authors evaluate the cost-effectiveness of community health workers (CHWs) to improve adherence to medication for epilepsy in South Africa. They found that utilizing CHWs to i...mprove medication adherence was cost-effective.
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Introduction Pharmacovigilance (PV) systems to monitor drug and vaccine safety are often inadequate in sub-Saharan
Africa. In Malawi, a PV enhancement initiative was introduced to address major barriers to PV.
Objective The objective of this initiative was to improve reporting of adverse events (A...Es) by strengthening passive safety
surveillance via PV training and mentoring of local PV stakeholders and healthcare providers (HCPs) at their own healthcare
facilities (HCFs).
Methods An 18-month PV training and mentoring programme was implemented in collaboration with national stakeholders,
and in partnership with the Ministry of Health, GSK and PATH. Two-day training was provided to Expanded Programme on
Immunisation coordinators, identified as responsible for AE reporting, and four National Regulatory Authority representa-
tives. Abridged PV training and mentoring were provided regularly to HCPs. Support was given in upgrading the national
PV system. Key performance indicators included the number of AEs reported, transmission of AE forms, completeness of
reports, serious AEs reported and timeliness of recording into VigiFlow.
Results In 18 months, 443 HCPs at 61 HCFs were trained. The number of reported AEs increased from 22 (January 2000 to
October 2016) to 228 (November 2016 to May 2018), enabling Malawi to become a member of the World Health Organization
Programme for International Drug Monitoring. Most (98%) AE report forms contained mandatory information on reporter,
event, patient and product, but under 1% were transmitted to the national PV office within 48 h.
Conclusion Regular PV training and mentoring of HCPs were effective in enhancing passive safety surveillance in Malawi,
but the transmission of reports to the national PV centre requires further improvement.
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Journal of Infection and Public Health 12 (2019) 213–223
dos Santos et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:80 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/80
Access to controlled medicines. 3rd edition
Report of a WHO technical consultation meeting
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Review
published: 12 August 2016 doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2016.00166
Frontiers in Public Health | www.frontiersin.org 1 August 2016 | Volume 4 | Article 166
BMC Psychiatry 2014 14:191 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-191
Shoman et al. Globalization and Health (2017) 13:1 DOI 10.1186/s12992-016-0224-2
Naicker et al. BMC Palliative Care (2016) 15:41 DOI 10.1186/s12904-016-0114-7
The purpose of these guidelines is to help health workers to participate in the process of continuous surveillance of safety and efficacy of the pharmaceutical products which are used in clinical practice, thus help to achieve the ultimate goal to make safer and more effective treatment available to... patients. This guideline addresses specifically the issues on what to report, why to report, when to report, where to report and how to report.
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