Using health and demographic surveillance systems for teratovigilance in Africa
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Date
2016-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Lancet Global Health
Abstract
ncreased funding in the past decade has improved healthcare coverage of the population and access to vaccines and drugs across sub-Saharan Africa.1However, there is still a need to collect valid and sufficient baseline data, data on the safety of drugs and vaccines used during pregnancy, and for innovative approaches to pharmacovigilance in pregnancy to inform policy makers and to improve treatment guidelines.Interest in establishing sustainable pharmacovigilance systems in Africa is gaining momentum thanks to plans for large-scale implementation of artemisinin-based combination therapies across Africa. However, less than 1% of individual case safety reports in WHO’s database (VigiBase®) are from Africa.2Drugs such as tetracycline, metronidazole, albendazole, mebendazole, and efavirenz are not recommended during the first trimester because of potential embryo toxicity.3 Nonetheless, these drugs are still used by women of childbearing age, and even pregnant women, by self-medication or irrational prescriptions.