Mike Ebonugwo
3 December 2008
analysis
Lagos — Discussions were lively as usual during a gathering of parliamentarians at the Iyana Ipaja bus-stop, Lagos last Thursday.
But proceedings soon took a sobering turn when Parliamentarian Chuks Ike drew the attention of his fellow parliamentarians to the shocking reports about the death of several babies in Nigeria after being treated with a teething medication.
"I don't know why this kind of thing always happens in Nigeria. After all the tragedies we have suffered in this country, we're now talking about another tragedy where close to 30 babies have died as a result of the medicine given to them for treatment.
Didn't they know that that particular drug was harmful before they allowed it to be distributed in the country? How are we even sure that most of the drugs we have been buying to treat ourselves are safe?
This is really terrible!" he quipped rather angrily.
Parliamentarian Fred Igwe responded by saying thus: "In fact, we should thank NAFDAC for detecting the drug that was causing the death of those babies.
They are the one that identified the medicine as My Pikin and quickly raised the alarm about the fact that it was causing death among babies.
After that, they closed down the company that manufactured the drug and the one that supplied the harmful substance used in manufacturing it. So, if not for NAFDAC, the tragedy would have been worse because more babies would have died; maybe, we would have been talking of death in hundreds".
Responding to this, Parlia-mentarian Taiwo Lawal had said: "It's even possible that more people died than the figure released by NAFDAC and some of these big hospitals. You know in Nigeria, because of our level of education and poverty in the land, many people prefer to treat themselves at home or go to smaller and cheaper hospitals and clinics.
What I'm saying is that it's possible many other affected babies may have died at home and at local clinics and nobody traced such deaths to that My Pikin medicine and so the thing was not officially reported to the relevant authorities like NAFDAC".
Chuks rejoined discussion by saying thus: "And that's why I'm still saying that both NAFDAC and the Federal Ministry of Health didn't do their work in order to avert this tragedy. If they had been more vigilant, they would have detected the presence of that drug before the thing started circulating in the country.
After all, are they not supposed to test every medicinal drug that enters into the country before it is approved for use? The question I will like to ask is: How did mothers in Nigeria come to know about that drug that they started using it on their babies?
Was it not because somebody prescribed it for them before they started using it? And who will prescribe a medicine if not doctors, pharmacists and nurses?
And if My Pikin had been prescribed by these health professionals, it then means that the health authorities knew about its presence in the country but did not do anything to ascertain whether it was safe for use or not".
Parliamentarian Willy Igiebor agreed, saying: "The point is that we're not organised in doing what is right in this country. That is why tragedies like this usually take us unawares. On their own, I will say NAFDAC is trying, especially in its campaign against fake and substandard drugs. But the question of safety of drugs use goes beyond this.
The question is: Do the authorities monitor how medicinal drugs are used in this country? What is being done about the serious problem of drug abuse? Don't you know that when Nigerians are sick, they usually walk down to the nearest chemist shop to treat themselves?
And what you find in most of these chemist shops are people who know little or nothing about medicine but who will not hesitate to prescribe one drug or the other to those who come to them for treatment.
It's only when something goes wrong or when complication arises in the course of the treatment that most of those who patronise the chemists will think of going to the hospitals for proper treatment.
The authorities know what is going on but they have refused to do anything about it. And that is why this kind of tragedy has happened to us".
For Fred: "NAFDAC cannot share in the blame of what you have said. If other health sector agencies in Nigeria are like NAFDAC, this incident would not have happened. It's because NAFDAC wants to avoid this kind of situation that it always comes down very hard on importers of fake and expired drugs.
In fact, almost every month, we will hear reports it has burnt seized fake and expired drugs. But the problem is that, in spite of all this, those importing these fake drugs are still in business; all because of money.
What they do is to smuggle these dangerous drugs into the country through our porous borders. NAFDAC is not a security agency; so, it's not their job to go and arrest smugglers at the borders; it's the Police and Customs officers that should do that.
It's because the Police and Customs men are not doing what they are supposed to do that we have many fake and dangerous products circulating in Nigeria today".
For Chuks, those who have lost their babies to the killer My Pikin have one course of action: to sue the Federal Government and all relevant health agencies in the country. "We should not allow this matter to rest at all.
Those directly affected by this tragedy, all those whose children died after taking that contaminated medicine should immediately sue the government, the Ministry of Health and even NAFDAC.
It doesn't matter whether those who imported or manu-factured the drug have been arrested. The fact is that government failed to protect these innocent babies. So, their parents should go and hire radical lawyers to sue government on their behalf.
Government must pay compensation to the parents for not doing anything to avert the tragedy that befell them," he suggested with passion.
Many of his fellow parliamentarians loudly hailed his suggestion.
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