Services you shouldn’t access from patent medicine dealers

Patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) and their shops popularly  called chemists or medicine shops are usually the first point of call when people fall sick, especially in the rural areas, suburbs or satellite towns. They are called ‘doctors’ in many rural areas and some people do not know their difference with qualified medical doctors, […]

Patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) and their shops popularly  called chemists or medicine shops are usually the first point of call when people fall sick, especially in the rural areas, suburbs or satellite towns.
They are called ‘doctors’ in many rural areas and some people do not know their difference with qualified medical doctors, and so go to them for all manner of services, some of which should only be accessed at hospitals, or from qualified medical doctors.
 Many people do not also know that there are services and medicines that should not be accessed from patent medicine vendors because their license of operation does not cover it, and also because they lack the requisite training and knowledge to carry out such services or administer such drugs.
 Even when the owners of the chemists or shops are nurses, or trained at School of Health Technologies, they are limits to what they should do when people come to buy drugs or seek treatment in their shops.
Patent medicine vendors are meant to sell Over-the-counter drugs. However, inspite of knowing this, some of them go ahead to perform abortions, diagnose and treat fertility problems, diabetes, and give ante-natal care  and birth assistance among others beyond their scope, leading to complications and deaths in some cases.
Some patent medicine vendours are also in the habit of mixing different medicines for people such that a farmer or labourer after a hard day’s job can get one tablet each of five different pain relief medicines mixed for him for body pains.
Some people are also in the habit of entering such shops and asking the vendor to give them a mix of different medicines and the vendors oblige them without considering the consequences.
 It is important for people to avoid such services and for the patent medicine vendors themselves not go beyond their scope. It is worse also that some operate illegally and stock expired and fake drugs in their shops.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) Director in charge of Inspection and Monitoring, Mrs. Anthonia Aruya, stated during a monitoring and enforcement exercise in Ibadan that a good number of patent and proprietary medicine vendors do not want to submit to regulation, or  how their services affects lives.
 She said:  “A case in point is the death of 14-year-old Amina Ibrahim who was treated by an illegal PPMV which resulted in her death. Our investigation so far shows that the PPMV shop is illegal and stocking well above the approved drug list for which it had no ability to handle.”
She said unlicensed PPMV shops are killing unsuspecting members of the public and enjoined members of the public to always look out for the licence issued by the PCN in any outlet before sourcing their drug needs.
According to the chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Abuja branch, Mrs  Otote Bridget Aladi,  ethical medicines such as antibiotics and controlled medicines  should never be accessed from a patent medicines store because there is a list of  medicines that can be sold by  patent medicine practioners, and the list stipulates that they are only to sell over-the-counter medicines.
“They are supposed to dispense over-the-counter drugs, that is basic medicines that you can even have in your first aid box at home. So medicines like the popular  Ampiclox, tetracycline   and so many other antibiotics that they display and dispense are actually against the ethics of their profession. They are not licensed to handle ethical medicines and they are not supposed to dispense such,” she said.
She advised the public to go to registered pharmacy stores for controlled drugs, speak to the pharmacist who would then advise and counsel them even on the use of the medicine before administering it.
She said this is necessary because sometimes when people go to the patent medicine store to access treatment, most times they say ‘mix or cut two’ and the vendor does so because he or she had not been trained and does not even know the implication thus  encouraging resistance.
She said: “Such that when you earnestly need those drugs for their pharmaceutical purpose, they fail. That is the reason we have a lot of drugs failing in our society because of their abuse and most of them come from patronage of patent medicine stores.”
On assisting with births, Mrs Aladi said patent vendors are also not supposed to assist with births, adding that pregnant women are either to go to the hospital or nursing homes that have trained midwives  or traditional birth attendants.
Registrar of the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed said people are not supposed to access prescription drugs from patent medicine vendors and shops.
“They must get prescription from medical doctors before they access those drugs. Anti-hypertensives and antibiotics are examples of drugs that they need prescription from a medical doctor  before they use them,” he said.
He cited the case of a particular lady who complained of tiredness and the patent medicine dealer gave her glucophage,  a prescriptive drug, because he thought that gluco means glucose and that led to the death of the young woman.
The registrar said that the  council has been sealing shops and prosecuting vendors operating beyond their scope,  adding that “some of them were still training young boys and sending them to the rural areas where they give cocktail of drugs, mixing this and that to for innocent people.” 
He said such medicines cause interaction and damage vital organs, as well as drug resistance in a person.
“Mixing the drugs; putting white capsules, black capsules with some tablets for people to take causes the drugs to already react within themselves before they now get into the system and start fighting themselves. That is why a lot of Nigerians are living corpses. You see people fighting with lots of kidney problems and liver damages.”
President of the Nigeria Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED), Prince Joel Odoh, said while they are supposed to primarily sell and give over-the-counter drugs to people, there was need for the expansion of their scope, being the first contact to patients at the grassroots.
He said while the association is not against the regulatory activities of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) over its members, the present license being issued to them does not cover many essential areas, saying that there is need for a round table discussion between the federal government, PCN and NAPPMED members to address the issues.
“We must sit down to upgrade the list and save more lives. We should agree on the necessary things. For example, every patent medicine dealer in the country has flagyl, tetracycline and ampicillin  in his shop, so  how can somebody in a rural area be treated  for diarrhea if the license does not cover it?,” he asked.
He said the association is working hard to ensure that its members do not engage in sharp practices like drug adulteration, and administration of fake and expired drugs on patients, adding that existing task force on surveillance and enforcement will be strengthened.