The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said asked Nigerians to dismiss reports that there are “killer” antimalarial medicines in circulation in the country.
NAFDAC‘s Acting Director-General, Dr. Yetunde Oni said this at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday.
Oni stated that the approved malaria treatment in the country were the artemisinin combination therapy.
”We want to correct the news that 42 banned anti-malarial medicines are still circulating in the country. The allegedly banned antimalarial medicines are oral immunotherapies containing single active pharmaceutical ingredients that have been banned since 2005,” she stated.
She noted that the anti-malarial medications that Nigerians needed to avoid were those that had no authentication system.
Oni said, “We recommend that you do not buy any anti-malarial drug that does not have the scratch and text technique. Every antimalarial should have an authentication system so that consumers can confirm if they have bought a genuine drug or not.”
Oni also said a mobile application on medicine packages has been deployed to allow users check the status of their products on their phones.
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