According to WHO, pneumonia and diarrhoea are the 2nd and 3rd leading causes of under 5 child deaths in the world, which accounts for about 40% of total child deaths in Nigeria. The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN)is the leading PACFaH partner advocating for the adoption of Amoxicillin DT as first line treatment for childhood pneumonia and Zinc/ORS co pack as treatment for childhood diarrhoea.
Together with other development partners and stakeholders, PSN worked to achieve increased awareness and support of the new treatment guidelines in the management of childhood pneumonia using Amoxicillin DT and Diarrhea (using zinc ORS co Pack) at National and 3 states. Policy dialogues and media sensitization with government and stakeholders led the inclusion of the focus drugs in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Essential Medicines List.
PSN achievement in their interventions made them a member of the National Essential Medicines Coordinating Mechanisms (NEMCM) of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). For PSN to Support the Strengthening of Treatment Guidelines, it was necessary the organization became a member of the group)
Following PSNs policy dialogue in July 2015, Kaduna State procured 4000 units of the Amoxicillin DT in Kaduna. Other achievements include creation of specific state budget line for the procurement of amoxicillin DT at the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board (SPHCB) and provisional approval given by the NSTG/EML committee for the inclusion of amoxicillin DT in the NSTG/EML as 1st line treatment of childhood pneumonia.
Their advocacy also led to the provisional approval from the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria(PCN) to include the pre referral treatment using amoxicillin DT for childhood Pneumonia in the patent and proprietary medicine vendors training module, which previouslyonly had contents on diarrhoea and malaria.
PSN work in the PACFaH project also successfully achieved the inclusion of Amoxicillin DT and Zn/lo-ORS in the basic minimum package of services to be funded by the 1% consolidated revenue of by the Nigerian government.
