Anambra State Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, ACPN, Pharmacist Henry Iloh, has reiterated his team’s commitment to using ‘awareness creation’ to bridge the knowledge gap the populace has about the activities of community pharmacists in the state.
Speaking to newsmen in Awka, Pharmacist Iloh noted that some deaths and kidney diseases could have been avoided with right information from a pharmacist; but for the knowledge gap.
He described pharmacy as one of oldest professional courses in the world which gives people the training to manufacture, handle, dispense, retail, export, import drugs and poisons; though with operational licenses.
With around thirty thousand pharmacists nationwide servicing about two hundred million population, Pharmacist Iloh said a huge gap still exists; reason there is a Federal Ministry of Health-approved training for patent medicine dealers to bridge the gap, though with limitations.
He added that the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, PCN, regulates everybody in the drug distribution chain, but regretted that because Nigeria is still a developing country, so many things still go wrong in the practice.
Pharmacist Iloh reminded all that “everything about drug is on the exclusive legislative list, and is controlled by the Federal Government”, reason people who go on enforcement should not be seen as anti-businness.
On activities of patent medicine dealers, the Anambra ACPN Chairman said they don’t inject someone, sell controlled drugs, poisons and prescription medicines, but only over-the-counter medicines.