Kennedy Obebi Cliff-Eribo1, Imti Choonara1, Alex Dodoo2, Delese M Darko3, Helen Sammons1. 1. a 1 The University of Nottingham, Derbyshire Children's Hospital, Academic Division of Child Health , Derby, UK mzxkoc@nottingham.ac.uk. 2. b 2 University of Ghana, School of Medicine and Dentistry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance , Accra, Ghana. 3. c 3 Food and Drugs Authority, National Pharmacovigilance Centre , Accra, Ghana.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to describe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported for children aged 0 - 17 years in Ghana. METHODS: Paediatric reports submitted by the Ghana National Centre for Pharmacovigilance to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global ADR database, VigiBase up to December 2012 were extracted. The data were analysed for number of reports per year, types of reporters and suspected ADRs and drugs. RESULTS: A total of 343 reports for children were received during the period. The drug classes most frequently reported were vaccines (115, 31%), antimalarials (106, 28%) and antibiotics (57, 15%). Of the top 20 individual drugs, 19 were anti-infectives. The most frequently reported ADRs were injection site infection, fever and rash. There were 23 deaths reported, and antimalarials were implicated in 12 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Vaccines, antimalarials and antibiotics are the leading medicines reported to cause ADRs in Ghanaian children. There was a high mortality rate, with many of the deaths due to causes explained in the individual case safety reports.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to describe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported for children aged 0 - 17 years in Ghana. METHODS: Paediatric reports submitted by the Ghana National Centre for Pharmacovigilance to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global ADR database, VigiBase up to December 2012 were extracted. The data were analysed for number of reports per year, types of reporters and suspected ADRs and drugs. RESULTS: A total of 343 reports for children were received during the period. The drug classes most frequently reported were vaccines (115, 31%), antimalarials (106, 28%) and antibiotics (57, 15%). Of the top 20 individual drugs, 19 were anti-infectives. The most frequently reported ADRs were injection site infection, fever and rash. There were 23 deaths reported, and antimalarials were implicated in 12 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Vaccines, antimalarials and antibiotics are the leading medicines reported to cause ADRs in Ghanaian children. There was a high mortality rate, with many of the deaths due to causes explained in the individual case safety reports.
Entities:
Keywords:
adverse drug reactions; children; drug safety; pharmacovigilance; spontaneous reporting system
Authors: Fawzi Thomas; Onome T Abiri; James P Komeh; Thomas A Conteh; Abdulai Jawo Bah; Joseph Sam Kanu; Robert Terry; Arpine Abrahamyan; Pruthu Thekkur; Rony Zachariah Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-03-10 Impact factor: 3.390