BOMRA LAUNCH MED SAFETY WEEK

EVERY report to the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BOMRA) helps to improve the safety of medicines for all patients.

BOMRA this week launched the seventh annual #Medsafetyweek which will run until November 13th to encourage everyone to report suspected side effects of medicines. People are encouraged to report suspected side effects of medicines as part of the global #MedSafetyweek social media campaign.

This year’s global campaign involves medicines regulators from 81 countries and focuses on the key role of every healthcare professional, patient, and carer who reports a suspected side effect and contributes to using medicines safely.

According to BOMRA Communications Officer, Mbaakanyi Macheke, all medicines may cause side effects in some patients, so there are steps in place to continuously monitor their safety after they are placed on the market. He said the purpose of safety monitoring is to gain more information about known side effects and find out about new ones. Macheke went on to say regulators operate systems to detect and analyse those side effects and prevent harm to future patients.

EFFECTS

“The mechanism run by BOMRA collects, organises, and investigates reports of suspected side effects. Since it was created, it has helped identify several safety issues which were not previously recognised as being linked to a particular medicine until BOMRA receives information from reports. By reporting suspected side effects to the Authority, you are actively participating in identifying emerging safety issues, so that BOMRA can take action when necessary and protect you and others from harm,” said Macheke.

Manager at Pharmacovigilance, Lebogang Koitsiwe, said every report made by a patient, a healthcare professional, or a carer, plays a key role in gaining more knowledge about the benefits and risks of medicines in clinical use and allows action to be taken to minimise risks.

“Reporting suspected side effects to the Authority helps to improve the safety of medicines for all patients and, in some cases, can result in better tailored prescribing advice, which can improve patient outcomes,” said Koitsiwe

The public and healthcare professionals are encouraged to report suspected side effects to BOMRA. This can be done through Medsafety APP, E-reporting on the BOMRA website and paper-based reporting.