Ifeanyi Okeke

“Transforming Global Health” is the theme of this year’s World Pharmacist Day, marked on 25th September, every year. This is particularly timely as the world faces the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year marks the tenth World Pharmacists Day. According to the President of International Pharmaceutical Federation, Dominique Jordan, the aim is to show how pharmacists contribute to a world where everyone benefits from access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and health technologies, as well as from pharmaceutical care services.

World Pharmacists Day was created by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Council at the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Istanbul, Turkey in 2009.

Pharmacy is one of the key health professions that will help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Colleagues in all fields of the profession are all individually playing a part in transforming the health of their communities. In Nigeria and all over the world, pharmacists are working relentlessly to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure people continue to have access to medicines they need.

Pharmacists’ efforts during this difficult time are quite commendable. The 21st century will be the century of pharmacists with advancement in pharmaceutical care and pharmacist’s active participation in detection and resolution of Drug Therapy Problems, including drug interactions and parenteral nutrition. Pharmacists in research and academia are working relentlessly to usher in the era of nano drug delivery, needleless injections and other innovative therapeutic options.

 The theme of World Pharmacists Day this year is an opportunity to communicate how pharmacists are transforming health through a variety of health services in their communities, including advising on healthy living, vaccinating to prevent disease, and ensuring that medicines are taken correctly, thereby managing diseases well and improving quality of life.

It also covers how pharmaceutical scientists transform and prolong people’s lives by developing safe and effective medicines and vaccines. On the education front, pharmacy educators are transforming outcomes by ensuring that there are enough qualified and competent pharmacists and scientists to meet the growing needs of our societies.

In Nigeria, the pharmacist to population ratio is about one to eight thousand, three hundred and seventeen members of population. This means that more pharmacists are needed, especially in primary care centers, to render services to our teeming population. The available pharmacists should be optimally utilized in health service delivery. Pharmacists are there in drug making, retailing, wholesaling, drug detailing, Policy making, importation, research among others.

We thank all our citizens, especially our Grand Patron, Governor Willie Obiano, Akpokuedike Global, for all your support.

Long live our great and noble profession, Long live Nigeria, Long live Anambra State.  As men of honour, we join hands for pharmacy.

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