Abstract
The pharmacovigilance practices aim to improve the safety and care of patient in relation to the utilization of medications, as well as other medical and paramedical interventions. Due to emergence of outbreaks of infections, the sub-Saharan African countries have been widely utilizing the trial drugs, which have been increasing the events of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) in the region. This systematic literature review aims to examine the characteristics, knowledge, attitude and pharmacovigilance practices performed by health care professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. This systematic review included N=7 studies, published between 2010 and 2020, and dealing with characteristics, knowledge, attitude and pharmacovigilance practices performed by health care professionals of sub-Saharan African region were extracted from CINAHL, Science Direct, and PubMed. Seven journal articles were selected through PRISMA research tool to identify the key factors which included inadequate training, under-reporting, knowledge assessment, practice, and good attitude. All selected studies were published in sub-Saharan Africa for this systematic review. The healthcare professionals working in the region of sub-Sahara Africa lack expertise in pharmacovigilance practices, due to lack of awareness, unavailability of support, and several other factors. Pharmacovigilance practices can be improved by arranging education, training, and role-play sessions for them. Key words: Pharmacovigilance, adverse drug reactions, knowledge, attitude, practice, sub-Saharan Africa, KAP.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) mentioned that an Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) is referred to as inadvertent, unwanted, as well as deleterious reactions to medications
This systematic review was focused on the studies examining the knowledge, characteristics, attitudes, as well as the practices of pharmacovigilance by the healthcare professionals in the countries located within the sub-Saharan African region
This systematic review was focused towards the articles presenting the ADRs and pharmacovigilance, on the basis of concepts presented by the WHO with the exclusion of overdosing, errors associated to the administration of medications, non-compliance of medications, as well as the therapeutic failures (Patel and Ganguly, 2010)
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) mentioned that an Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) is referred to as inadvertent, unwanted, as well as deleterious reactions to medications. The ADR might occur even after the correct utilisation of medications, such that there has been a range of factors, which either predispose or contribute to the development of ADR (Adedeji et al, 2013). These factors include the irrational utilisation of medications, poor patterns of medication prescriptions, the promotional activities and campaigns considered by the pharmaceutical industries, the inadequate access to the objective resources of information, and unhealthy pharmaceutical practices (NPC, 2012). For reducing the risk of morbidity and mortality due to ADR, the healthcare professionals need to achieve competence in the handling of ADRs within the clinical practice for the safety of patients and for the monitoring of drug safety level at the level of the population (van Eekeren et al, 2018)
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