Knowledge, perception and practice of pharmaceutical waste disposal among the public in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Introduction: increased consumption of pharmaceuticals has been reported to cause a high level of their discharge into the environment, and even small quantities in the environment have the potential to cause harm. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted between April and May 2021. The questionnaire was made available online through social media platforms. Results: a total number of 534 respondents were surveyed. Two hundred and fifty respondents (46.8%) were presently on one or more medications. Many participants have not received advice on pharmaceutical waste from health professionals (413, 78.3%). There is fair knowledge about pharmaceutical waste 234 (43.8%). Many of the respondents think there is a lack of adequate information on what to do with them (500, 93.6%) and there should be a program/ strategy to retrieve all unused, leftover, or expired medicines (475, 88.9%). A lot of respondents throw unused medicines away in household garbage (391, 73.2%). Conclusion: there is fair knowledge, positive perception, and poor pharmaceutical waste disposal practice. There is a need for the implementation of a "medication take-back program" for appropriate waste disposal practice.

Factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adults in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Emerging variants of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has claimed over 3000 lives in Nigeria and vaccination remains a means of reducing the death toll. Despite ongoing efforts by the government to ensure COVID-19 vaccination of most residents to attain herd immunity, myths and beliefs have adversely shaped the perception of most Nigerians, challenging the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine. This study aimed to assess the factors influencing the awareness, perception, and willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine among Nigerian adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional online nationwide study was conducted from April to June 2021 among Nigerian adult population using the snowballing method. Descriptive analysis was used to summarise the data. Univariate and multivariate analysis was used to identify the predictors of COVID-19 uptake among the respondents. A p value <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 1058 completed forms were analysed and 63.9% were females. The mean age was 40.8 years±12.2 years. Most of the respondents (740; 69.5%) had satisfactory awareness of the vaccination exercise. The media was the main source of information. Health workers reported higher level of awareness (aOR = 1.822, 95% CI: 1.388-2.524, p<0.001). Respondents that are Christians and Muslims had better awareness compared to the unaffiliated (aOR = 6.398, 95% CI: 1.918-21.338, P = 0.003) and (aOR = 7.595, 95% CI: 2.280-25.301, p<0.001) respectively. There is average score for perception statements (566; 53.2%) towards COVID-19 vaccination. Close to half of the respondents (44.2%) found the short period of COVID-19 production worrisome. Majority of the respondents were willing to get the vaccine (856; 80.9%). Those without a prior diagnosis of COVID-19 had a lower willingness to get vaccinated (aOR = 0.210 (95% CI: 0.082-0.536) P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study revealed a high level of awareness, willingness to receive the vaccine and moderate perception towards the vaccination activities. Influencing factors that significantly affects awareness were religion, occupation, education and prior diagnosis of COVID-19; for perception and willingness-occupation, and prior diagnosis of the COVID-19 were influencing factors.

Direct reporting of adverse drug reactions by healthcare consumers in Africa: a narrative review.

Background The challenges of under-reporting of adverse drug reactions have been identified as a major setback for the pharmacovigilance system worldwide. Direct reporting by health care consumers has been adopted in some developed and developing countries with a positive impact in improving pharmacovigilance activities through increased reporting rate. There are limited reports on direct reporting and its outcome in Africa. Aim of the review The study aimed to identify and present the available evidence on direct reporting of adverse drug reactions by healthcare consumers in Africa. Methods A review guided by Cochrane handbook was conducted. Electronic scientific databases such as PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase and Cochrane Library were searched. Google scholar, general Google search engine, the website for the regulatory resources for Africa and World Health Organisation-Uppsala Monitoring were also searched for available guidelines, documents and publications. The review period was January 1992 to October 2019. The results were analysed descriptively. Results This study identified 16 African countries that have included healthcare consumers as eligible to report adverse drug reactions in their policy/guidelines. There is low awareness of healthcare consumers on pharmacovigilance system. Eight (8) out of thirty-six (36) African countries that are members of the World Health Organisation Programme for International Drug Monitoring have formally launched direct reporting by healthcare consumers which are 14.2% of African countries. There is a wide range of difference between the rate of adverse drug reactions report submitted by health care consumers as compared with healthcare workers. Paper form, text messages, telephone and web application-based reporting system have been used by different countries that have launched direct reporting. Poor infrastructure, low awareness and lack of a reporting culture are major challenges while the availability of common reporting methods is a potential opportunity of promoting direct reporting in African countries. Conclusions Few African countries have adopted and launched direct reporting. Reporting rate through direct methods is still relatively low when compared with reporting by healthcare workers. Published legal framework, policies, guidelines and studies on direct reporting are limited. Availability of a system and reporting method are opportunities to improve and overcome probable challenges.