The Ministry of Health and Social Development has launched a four part series on pharmaducation to educate the public on asthma management strategies, drug interactions, pharmacovigilance and proper disposal of unwanted medicines.

The series is designed to empower the community with tools to effectively manage asthma and knowledge to make the best decisions with regards to their pharmaceutical use.

According to Chief of Drugs and Pharmaceutical Services, Mrs. Gracia Wheatley-Smith the pharmaducation series can be a great tool that will assist individuals in building their capacity to manage their pharmaceutical use as well as to strengthen asthma management techniques as we strive to promote a more medicine vigilant community.”Mrs Wheatley-Smith said that part one of the four part series will address asthma management. 

“Last year our office hosted three workshops targeting children and other individuals with asthma to get an idea of how asthma is being managed.  What we discovered is that some individuals do not have a grasp on handling asthma properly to prevent attacks,” Mrs. Wheatley-Smith stated.

“We saw a need for further education,” she said, adding, “It is our hope that the asthma management programme will provide the knowledge and tools necessary to assist persons with asthma or caregivers to effectively manage this condition.”

Asthmatics and caregivers of people with asthma are encouraged to tune into the Asthma Management programme to be empowered to better manage the lung disease in a manner which will result in the reduction of attacks and hospital visits.

Interested persons can tune into CBN channel 51 from today Monday February 23 to Saturday February 28 at 7:00 a.m.,2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. daily.

Part two of the pharmaducation series will address pharmacovigilance as the ministry seeks to bring awareness to medicines and how you can minimize possible side effects.  The pharmacovigilance programme will be released during the first week of March.

The Ministry of Health and Social Development is committed to enabling effective use and management of medicines.