NAFDAC arrests three traders, seals shops in Onitsha

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control on Thursday arrested three traders in
Onitsha, Anambra State,  for selling fake and unregistered medical equipment.
The NAFDAC team also sealed four shops, where the fake and unregistered medical devices, which are mostly used for test of blood pressure, temperature and insulin levels, were sold.
NAFDAC’s Regulatory and Enforcement Officer, Mr Babatunde Omoyeni, said the agency was out to mop up all the imported fake and unregistered medical devices that give wrong diagnosis, which could lead to therapeutic failure.
Omoyeni said the agency got a tip-off on the presence of the devices in the town, noting that the imported fake and unregistered medical devices lead to wrong diagnosis and sudden death of patients, depending on their diagnostic results.
He said, “In medicine, we believe so much that if the diagnosis is wrong, the whole lot of medical treatment would be a total failure.
“As a way of guarding against this therapeutic failure, we are out for these medical devices.
“Because companies are doing genuine products and they are distributing, but unscrupulous people, traders in the market are also going to other countries bringing in fake medical devices.
“Because somebody that has a problem, a diabetic patient for example, is getting a blood glucose level that is within the normal range, we think it is okay.
“But at the end of the day, the person’s internal organs – the hearts, the kidney – they would have all degenerated to the point that the whole thing will collapse and before you know it, the person had died.”
Some traders in the market, however, complained that they did not know that medical device was under NAFDAC regulation as well as the need to register them.

Punch