Counterfeit and fake medication is one of the greatest health challenges facing mankind in modern times. Many have perished, some are permanently deformed and resources wasted as a result of drug counterfeiting. With Nigeria touted as the largest fake drug market in Africa, the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) introduced the Mobile'> ABSTRACT
Counterfeit and fake medication is one of the greatest health challenges facing mankind in modern times. Many have perished, some are permanently deformed and resources wasted as a result of drug counterfeiting. With Nigeria touted as the largest fake drug market in Africa, the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) introduced the Mobile'>
Keyword : NAFDAC, FAKE DRUGS, MAS Author(s) : Ekwe Okwudiri Abstract : ABSTRACT Counterfeit and fake medication is one of the greatest health challenges facing mankind in modern times. Many have perished, some are permanently deformed and resources wasted as a result of drug counterfeiting. With Nigeria touted as the largest fake drug market in Africa, the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) introduced the Mobile Authentication Service technology (MAS) to stem the tide of fake drugs. Media campaigns were consequently launched in 2010 to create the needed awareness on how the technology worked. Six years after the campaigns were lunched, have the awareness and knowledge levels of respondents increased? Hence, this study was initiated to find out the influence of NAFDAC MAS campaigns on drug users in South- East Nigeria. In conducting this study, the Concurrent Mixed Design was adopted. Questionnaire, in-depth interview guide and Focus Group Discussion guide were used to generate quantitative and qualitative data for the study. Four hundred and two (402) respondents drawn systematically from the five South- East states were used. After the analysis, the findings revealed that 62.9 % of the respondents were aware of NAFDAC campaign on the use of MAS to check the authenticity of drugs. However, majority of them who knew about it came from the urban centres. The result equally showed that their awareness level was not high. It was also found that the knowledge level of the respondents on MAS was low. Finding equally suggested that majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the MAS technology but had poor practices.The first hypothesis tested revealed that there is a strong positive correlation (0.816) between the gender of drug consumers and the extent of usage of NAFDAC’s Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) technology in identifying fake drugs. Hypothesis two showed that there is a strong positive correlation between the drug consumers’ socio-economic status in the society and the extent of their usage of NAFDAC’s Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) technology in identifying fake drugs. The third hypothesis showed that there is a significant relationship between drug consumers’ geographic location and their knowledge level of NAFDAC’s Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) technology. Based on these findings, it was recommended that NAFDAC could use the National Orientation Agency to educate rural people at the grassroots. The Ward Community Health officers (WDC) in all the wards in Nigeria could be used to reach them. Obviously, with only 2135 staff in NAFDAC, it is difficult for them to carry out constant checks in all the 774 local councils in Nigeria. INFLUENCE OF NAFDAC’S MOBILE AUTHENTICATION SERVICE MEDIA CAMPAIGNS IN THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF FAKE DRUGS IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA