Namibia joined the rest of the world in observing #MedSafetyWeek, being commemorated under the theme "How patients and healthcare professionals make safety work". 

The Ministry of Health and Social Services embarked on a social media campaign from the 7th to the 13th of November with the goal to encourage the public to report suspected side effects of medicines.

This year's global campaign involves medicines regulators from 81 countries and focuses on the key role of every healthcare professional, patient, and carer who reports a suspected side effect and contributes to using medicines safely.

Medicines Information and Safety Pharmacist at the Therapeutic Information and Pharmacovigilance Centre, Frieda Shigwedha says the theme for this year aims to have both health professionals and patients work together to make safety work.

"What happens is, you have a patient who is on a certain drug and after some time they start experiencing side effects and this is where the monitoring comes in."

Also speaking at the occasion, was Dr Theo-Ben Kandetu, Acting Deputy Executive Director at the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

Dr Kandetu says MedSafetyWeek raises awareness of pharmacovigilance systems among patients and healthcare professionals.

"It starts with the prescriber whether it's the nurse or medical doctor, they usually know the side effect profile, and based on the disease profile of the patient, they will pick the drug that is most suitable to them, but we know that most drugs have adverse reactions and most of them are mild, therefore it's important for the prescriber to be aware of that and inform the patient."