…recovers 19, 000 pieces

By Chioma Obinna

Alarmed by the wrong use of Chlorhexidine digluconate which caused blindness in some babies in Adamawa and Yobe States, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has commenced a mop-up of the product to avoid further harm.

Dr Paul Orhii

Chlorhexidine digluconate manufactured by Galentic Pharma, India, is licensed for use in Nigeria as an antiseptic gel to be applied to newborn’s cord stump to prevent infection.

At a briefing in Lagos to announce the 2015 NAFDAC SUMMEX, Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, said already over 19,000 pieces of the products had been recovered from the various Primary Health Centres in the two states where the drug was distributed as part of delivery packs for mothers.

The Director General warned that henceforth, all agencies bringing in drugs either for public health intervention or otherwise must go through the appropriate channels before distribution.

Orhii who blamed the incident on ignorance on the part of mothers, explained that the product was originally brought in by one of the country’s partners to assist mothers to prevent umbilical cord infection.

Insisting that the drug was not registered by NAFDAC in Nigeria, he said appropriate sanction would be meted to persons, who distributed the drug without the right information to the innocent women.

The Director-General assured that the product was not yet in the market but was brought in for a special programme, saying “investigations have shown that the product is not yet in the market. Appropriate sanction will be taken against who distributed these products to mothers without educating them.”

In another development, NAFDAC, is organising the 2015 edition of the annual summit and exhibition tagged “NAFDAC SUMMEX”
Director- General of the Agency said the three-day summit slated for October 13 to 15, would be a convergence of all stakeholders on the platform of NAFDAC.