The event currently underway at the Kairaba Hotel, attracted health experts from WAHO member-countries and across the sub-region. The highlights of the event witnessed an induction of a total of eighty-one (81) students as fellows in various specialties offered by the College, having successfully passed the final examinations of the four-year Fellowship programme. The event also witnessed the investiture of two (2) Honorary Fellows, five (5) Foundation Fellows from three (3) Francophone countries (Benin, Senegal and Togo) and one (1) Lusophone country (Guinea Bissau); Nine (9) Elected Fellows from the West African region.
Welcoming the gathering, Alhaji Murtada Sesay, president of the West African Postgraduate College Pharmacists, reminded that every year, they meet for their annual AGM and Scientific Symposium in a member country to deliberate on topical health issues and arrive at a decision which guide their contribution to regional health.
“It is also an important ceremony during which we induct and accept new fellows into the college.”
He informed that the theme for this year’s event is –‘Medicine Safety’, further recalling that over the past four-decades of the history of the organisation, the issue of medicine safety would have been discuss on varying contexts, at one time or the other.
However, he indicated that as new challenges present a and old problems manifest in new guises, they remain duty-bound to respond intellectually and practically to protect and promote public health.
He made reference to the recent problem and evolution of Acute Kidney Injury, subsequently associated with the consumption of contaminated pediatric syrup, and the consequent death of over seventy children in The Gambia.
“Sadly, this a problem which has occurred in other parts of the globe and must be prevented from recurring in our region and indeed any part of the world. There couldn’t have been a better justification for the theme of our 2024 AGM.”
Also speaking, Mrs Markieu Janneh Kaira, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of The Gambia, recalled that the history of the WAPCP would be incomplete without mentioning the its founding body, the West African Pharmaceutical Federation (WAPF), which was established in October 1976 in Monrovia, Liberia.
Pharmacists in the West African Region realised the need to harmonise and develop pharmacy education, laws and practice in order to improve the quality of health care delivery and the life of the people of the region. Pharmacists at that inaugural meeting were from The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.”
This, work, she added, progressed into the establishment of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP) in 1991.
Unfortunately, the Francophone countries subsequently withdrew from the federation and in recent years, WAPCP committed to reintegrate francophone countries like our sister colleges.
Jimmy Olu Coker, chapter chair of the WAPCP, The Gambia, while describing the theme of the event as apt, also affirmed that managing medication can be complicated, particularly drugs that treat different conditions.
He revealed that over 20 percent of US adults aged 40 and older take five or more prescription drugs, acknowledging that in our sub-region, we are faced with several problems such as buying of medicine from hawkers in the streets, filling of prescription medicines from different pharmacies and receiving medicines from friend and relatives without proper medical advice.
He equally used the forum to congratulate the new graduands, who he said, worked hard to be inducted fellows of the prestigious College.
The event attracted other speakers in the public health domain in the sub-region.
