…cautions Nigerians not to accept vaccines
… says monitoring of vaccines for adverse effects key
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As Nigerians anticipate arrivals of the new (COVAX Vaccine )COVID19 vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization, WHO, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Director General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye has announced that the agency has not approved any vaccine for the virus for use in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by Professor Adeyeye titled ” Safety of COVID-19 vaccines, what NAFDAC wants the public to know”, she announced that the agency has not yet received any application from manufacturers and therefore no vaccines have been approved by NAFDAC.
Adeyeye said” if NAFDAC does not approve the public should not use.” She cautioned the public against use of the vaccines for now and emphasized that since COVID-19 vaccines are new there are side effects or adverse events which must be well monitored.
The agency cautioned the public on reports of fake vaccines which could cause death.
She said, ” There are reports of fake vaccines in Nigeria. NAFDAC is pleading with the public to beware. No Covid Vaccines have been approved by NAFDAC. Fake vaccines can cause Covid-like illnesses or other serious diseases that could kill.”
The agency also warned government establishments without approval confirmation from NAFDAC not to import the vaccines while local companies not to do so without the mandatory submission of their application to NAFDAC.
The agency said it is engaging manufactures of candidate COVID-19 vaccines on potential Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), registration or licensing of their product as the case may be.
The drug regulatory agency further said that pharmacovigilance would be used to monitor the adverse reaction effects of the vaccines after immunization of persons.
Adding that it would use its tracking and tracing technology to monitor vaccines distribution using acceptable global standards.
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