Many doctors still treat patients with banned drugs – Optometrist

Medical experts have identified the use of banned drugs in the treatment of ailments as one of the challenges confronting  Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system. An optometrist and coordinator of a non-governmental organization, the Joy Eye Institute, Dr  Ikechukwu Nwakuche  stated this while delivering a paper at the Continuing Development Programme organized by the institute in […]

Medical experts have identified the use of banned drugs in the treatment of ailments as one of the challenges confronting  Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system.
An optometrist and coordinator of a non-governmental organization, the Joy Eye Institute, Dr  Ikechukwu Nwakuche  stated this while delivering a paper at the Continuing Development Programme organized by the institute in Owerri
He said:”Many of the drugs still being used by medical and health officers to treat patients in Nigeria have long been put out of use elsewhere in the world.”
He noted that the manufacturers of most foreign drugs in use in the country today had long stopped production and warned against their use, adding that ignorance of such information has made many medical personnel to continue administering them to unsuspecting patients.
Nwakuche further remarked that some unscrupulous indigenous drug marketers still adulterate the banned drugs and continue to sell them with impunity to the detriment of the health of the larger society.
The coordinator advised medical practitioners to endeavour to avail themselves of relevant information on drug updates to avoid  administering to their patients the poisonous substances that would complicate rather than save life.
In his keynote address, the vice chancellor of Abia State University, ABSU, Uturu, Prof. Uche E. Ikonne  called for synergy among optometrists that are in the National Optometric Association, the academia and Optometry and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board of Nigeria, ODORBN, in order to achieve wider recognition for practitioners in the country.
Also speaking,  Prof. Christian Aloaka, provost of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, harped on the need for practitioners to always stick to rules and standards wherever they are.