By Haruna Usman, Birnin Kebbi
The National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, in Kebbi has decried the poor vaccines storage in most of the local governments’ cold rooms.
The Kebbi state coordinator of NAFDAC, Alhaji Muyideen Sulaiman, made the disclosure during a courtesy visit on the Kebbi State Commissioner for Health in Birnin Kebbi on Friday.
Sulaiman, maintained that the agency never for once receive expired vaccines from the 21 local governments in the state,
“Most of the places we visited, what we saw in the cold rooms in local councils is not encouraging. We appeal to the state government to improve their storage cold rooms “.
In the fight against fake and expired drugs he said the agency has moved above scammers by introducing greenbook which is an app that can easily detect fake or expired drugs as all registered drugs or products are in green book with expired dates and authentic NAFDAC registration number.
The agency also appealed to the state government to establish coordinated wholesale drugs distribution units where all drugs supplies come before they are distributed to various patent stores or pharmacies which he said will afford his staff the opportunity to certify the drugs before going into the shelves of medicine vendors in the state.
Responding, the commissioner for Health pledged to work with the agency to ensure safe drugs and foods in Kebbi state.
He added that the ministry is ready to go into partnership with the agency in training their staff on how to use green book. “We will also ensure our local councils improve in vaccines storage and we will reactivate vaccines delivery vans across local government areas in the state.