TheCable

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says Nigerians can report adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine via the ‘Med Safety’ mobile application.

Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of NAFDAC, announced this during a media briefing on Thursday.

She said the initiative is part of the agency’s efforts to increase pharmacovigilance.

“Now we have what is called Med Safety app. It is an app that more than 50 million people can download for free on Google store or apple store. It is for healthcare workers and educated consumers, ” she said.

“So, if you get the vaccine next week, for example, you have the Med Safety app. You will enter your name and it is customised for Nigeria. There are many countries that use it. Nigeria is one of them. You click Nigeria and it will take you through how to register. 

“So, if you have fever or soreness in your arm or whatever, you put it down there and it will be automatically transferred to NAFDAC.”

According to the DG, it is important to monitor the response of Nigerians to the vaccine as it has not been used by a large population in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We have to do abridged clinical trials to know if the UK variant won’t impact the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine,” she added.

Nigeria received its first batch of 3.9 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday.