Senate Urges FG, States to Ensure Availability of Anti-Venoms to Tackle Health Emergencies

The Nigerian Senate has called on the Federal and state governments to take urgent steps to ensure the availability of safe, effective and affordable anti-venom drugs in both public and private hospitals, in order to prevent avoidable deaths across the country.
The resolution followed a motion raised under matters of national importance by Senator Idiat Adebule, representing Lagos West Senatorial District, over the recent death of Miss Ifunanya Nwangene in Abuja.

Moving the motion, Senator Adebule lamented that Nigeria continues to record medical emergencies leading to the untimely death of citizens due to the unavailability of life-saving antidotes, a development she described as deeply worrisome.

She described the death of Miss Nwangene from a snake bite as an embarrassment to the nation and urged the Federal and state ministries of health, as well as private health stakeholders, to develop national guidelines for the management of medical emergencies to prevent needless loss of lives.
While reading the prayers contained in the motion, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, charged the government to enforce national guidelines prescribing minimum stock levels of essential antidotes in both public and private hospitals nationwide.

Other prayers in the motion urged the Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), to ensure the procurement, quality assurance, proper storage and nationwide availability of safe, effective and affordable anti-venoms and other critical antidotes, with priority attention given to high-risk regions.