Abstract
Nigeria has a problem with fake drugs. This issue got to an intolerable height in 1989 when over 150 children died as a result of ingesting paracetamol syrup containing diethylene glycol. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was formed in 1993, as an agency under the Nigerian federal ministry of health, to check the tide of fake drugs and adulterated products. To achieve this mission, NAFDAC, in 2010, launched the Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) – a mobile-phone m-Health platform, which empowers medication drug users to instantaneously verify the authenticity or otherwise of a medication drug before purchase. This study sought to ascertain the workability of MAS among medication drug users; and factors negating this platform. The study was designed as a survey. Data was collected from 400 medication drug users in Lagos state, Nigeria, through a structured survey. Results show that 91 percent of the respondents were aware of MAS and 53 percent among these utilized it prior to purchasing medication drugs, while 9 percent were neither aware of MAS nor utilize it. The notable barriers to the use of MAS found in this study were lack of awareness and the unreliable nature of the MAS. Keywords: Mobile Authentication Service, Public Health Informatics, Fake drugs, m-Health. DOI : 10.7176/NMMC/79-07 Publication date : April 30 th 2019
Highlights
Mobile telephony, popularly known as GSM, was introduced in Nigeria in the year 2001
One third of the medication drug users are civil servants, one quarter professionals, one sixth business people, one eighth university students, one twentieth artisans and self-employed persons, one fortieth farmers and one sixtieth unemployed persons. The majority of these medication drug users were within the 18-30 age bracket
With regard to the respondents’ utilization of NAFDAC’s Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) to authenticate medication drugs before purchase, we found that a little above two fourths of the respondents who said they were aware of MAS said they have used it to confirm the authenticity of medication drugs before purchase; while over two fifths among these respondents were not affirmative as to having used MAS to authenticate medication drugs before purchase
Summary
Popularly known as GSM, was introduced in Nigeria in the year 2001. Prior to this development, Nigerians relied on telephone landlines provided by state-owned telecom service, NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications). With the advent of mobile telephony, 118,850,928 Nigerians have been connected to GSM lines. Out of this number, 553,425 actively use their mobile phones (WWW.ncc.gov.ng). 553,425 actively use their mobile phones (WWW.ncc.gov.ng) This was not obtainable in the era of landline phone services in Nigeria. The Internet can be accessed on the go by owners of mobile phones. This situation brings to mind the reality of Marshall McLuhan’s idea of a Global Village
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