Director-General – The Commerce Africa https://thecommerceafrica.com African Reneissance Sun, 24 Sep 2023 21:32:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9 NAFDAC warns against use of products with steroids, others https://thecommerceafrica.com/nafdac-warns-against-use-of-products-with-steroids-others/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/nafdac-warns-against-use-of-products-with-steroids-others/#respond Sun, 24 Sep 2023 21:32:43 +0000 https://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=15235 The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control has warned Nigerians against use of four products found to contain potent medicinal ingredients, steroids and other banned substances.

The warning is contained in a public alert, signed by the Director-General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja.

Adeyeye said the agency was notified of the product in a statement by the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore.

She said that the implicated potent medicinal ingredients are not allowed in the affected products and may cause severe side effects on consumers.

She said, “the HSA confirmed that four consumers experienced adverse effects after taking three of the products.”

She added that laboratory analysis conducted by HSA on the products revealed that they contain potent medicinal ingredients, including steroids.

She said the products also contain sibutramine (a banned weight loss medicine) and tadalafil (an erectile dysfunction medicine).

According to her, further details of the products as provided by HSA are as follows; Potent medicinal ingredients

She listed the source of the products as, ‘ENRU PLUS+’Sibutramine (banned substance), Local e-commerce and social media platforms ‘HKT HERBA KURUS TRADISI’

“Possible adverse effects of potent ingredients found in the products are: Dexamethasone and Prednisolone,” She said.

She added that dexamethasone and prednisolone are potent steroids that are usually prescribed for inflammatory conditions and could only be used under strict medical supervision.

Adeyeye said that long-term unsupervised use of steroids can cause increased blood glucose levels, which she said my lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, cataracts, muscular and bone disorders.

She said that steroids could also cause an increased risk of infections and cushing’s syndrome (a round or ‘moon face’ appearance and upper body obesity with thin limbs).

She added that discontinuation of steroids without proper medical supervision can cause serious withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, confusion and low blood pressure.

She also described Diclofenac in the products as a potent painkiller that may potentially cause serious gastric bleeding, as well as cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and stroke when used for a prolonged period.

According to her, Diclofenac should be used under close medical supervision, especially in consumers with underlying heart conditions.

The D-G said that Sibutramine is a medicine prescribed for weight loss, and has been banned in Singapore since 2010 because of an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Other serious adverse effects including fast heart rate, hallucinations or hearing voices which she said it had also been reported by consumers who took slimming products adulterated with sibutramine.

She stated that Tadalafil is a prescription medicine used to treat erectile dysfunction that should only be given under medical supervision.

According to her, inappropriate use of tadalafil is dangerous and can increase the risk of serious adverse effects, including heart attack, stroke, headache, migraine, irregular heart rate and priapism (painful and exceedingly long erections).

“Tadalafil can also pose serious risks to certain individuals, including those with heart-related problems. It can cause potentially life-threatening low blood pressure in those who are on heart medications, especially those containing nitrates,” she said.

She further warned the public to be cautious with all these substances, adding that they are all dangerous to health.

NAN

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Nigeria has 59 Labs for COVID-19 Test — NCDC https://thecommerceafrica.com/nigeria-has-59-labs-for-covid-19-test-ncdc/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/nigeria-has-59-labs-for-covid-19-test-ncdc/#respond Fri, 24 Jul 2020 09:07:25 +0000 http://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=1238

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says there are now 59 laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19 across 29 states and the FCT, while two rapid diagnostic are in the pipeline for validation.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General, NCDC, made this known during the Presidential Tasks Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday in Abuja.

Ihekweazu said that the centre was working to ensure that testing capacity was available in remaining states across the country.

He stated that the NCDC team was currently in Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, and Taraba states.

In a bid to scale up national testing, the DG said the centre was leveraging on existing laboratory and converting them to test for COVID-19.

“There are high throughput labs that existed for HIV testing, GeneXperts. Other approaches are inclusion of private laboratories and rapid diagnostic test kits.

“There are 45 labs that can carry out real time PTR testing across the country, while four mega PCR labs have been activated to include; two national reference lab and the defence reference lab in Abuja, one lab at the, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital and another in Lagos,” he said.

Ihekweazu also informed that seven private laboratories have been activated in Lagos, while two were almost ready in Abuja.

“The private sector has seen it’s not as easy as we originally have thought,” he said.

He added that 13 GeneXperts have been activated in 10 states, out of 400 available in the country.

On rapid diagnostic test kits, the DG said the centre have been working with Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria to validate a number of kits.

“There are two that are showing good promise, the validation process is ongoing and in the next couple of weeks, we should be able to know if they are able to be included,” Ihekweazu said.

On the target to test two million people by the end of this month, the DG said the testing in itself was not the goal, but that the goal was to bring people into care through testing and enable contact tracing to happen for those who were positive and generally move the system along.

On complaints from Nigerians over delay in getting COVID-19 test results, Ihekweazu informed that an online platform was underway where patients could access using a code to download their results once they get a message notification.

“That platform is almost ready, we will be piloting it in Abuja first, once it demonstrates utility, we will scale it up across the country,” the DG said.

Ihekweazu said the centre was ramping up stockpile of reagents and the country would have foresaw testing challenges.

He further informed that 250,000 people have been tested in the country so far. He announced that Nigeria carries out 3,000-4,000 tests daily.

NAN

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