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Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) which was established in 1971 is an institution of the Good Samaritan Foundation the owner and founder of the centre. It is located in Moshi, Kilimanjaro region, Northern Tanzania.

The KCMC Drug information office was strengthened in 2006 to be run by the clinical departments. Located in the main Pharmacy it aims to promote a pharmacovigilance culture and document Adverse Drug Reactions in KCMC.

KCMC is one of the four referral hospitals in Tanzania. It is a teaching What is Pharmacovigilance?

Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other possible drug-related problems. (WHO, 2006).

The history of pharmacovigilance goes back to 1965 during the 18th World Health Assembly, which drew attention to the problem of adverse drug reaction monitoring. After three more meetings the International Drug Monitoring Programme came into being in 1970. After 35 years the programme includes 78 countries including Tanzania.

History of Pharmacovigilance in Tanzania

Pharmacovigilance history in Tanzania can be traced back to 1989 in then Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC). A drug information center, known as the Tanzania Drug and Toxicology Information Services (TADATIS) was established with the key functions of promoting, reporting, and analyzing ADRs, with reports submitted to the World Health Organization. Other functions included providing pharmaceutical information and education for the public and health care workers about rational use and prescribing through radio, TV, bulletins, and newspapers.

TADATIS became TFDA under the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 1998 where a risk analysis section (Pharmacovigilance) was established. Since then TFDA has established four Zonal Drug information centers. These are namely Dar es Salaam (Muhimbili), Bugando, Mbeya and Kilimanjaro (KCMC).

Number of spontaneous ADR reports received per year 1991 – 2005

Year	Local products	Imported	Total
1991			28
1992			9
1993			25
1994			17
1995			31
1996			62
1997			43
1998			8
1999			17
2000			40
2001			38
2002	9	108	117
2003/2004	4	56	63
2004/2005	1	78	79

Source: Tanzania Food and Drug Authority, 2006.

As noted, underreporting remains a challenge due to the following factors

Lack of awareness on Adverse Drug Reaction by health care professionals.
Lack of reporting by pharmaceutical industry.
Lack of priority setting within TFDA and public health programs.
Lack of technical and financial resources.
Weak organizational structure, leading to uneven distribution to and collection of standardized ADR reporting forms

TFDA plans to carry out the following activities to improve Pharmacovigilance

v Increase the number of zonal Drug information Offices
v Strengthen collaboration with public health programs within MOH
v Institute mandatory ADR reporting by the pharmaceutical industry
v Incorporate Pharmacovigilance into the health care teaching curricula
v Make ADR forms available to each health facility nationalwide
v Increase ADR awareness among

Source of materials: Tanzania Food and Drug Authority, WHO and Consultative Meeting Report for Pharmacovigilance prepared by Management Sciences for Health (Dat Tran, 2006)

Contact personel:

Kilimanjaro Christian Medical CentreP. O. Box 3010 Moshi, Kilimanjaro+255756203107

Department of Internal MedicineKilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre P. O. Box 3010 Moshi, Kilimanjaro+255756337067

Department of Internal MedicineKilimanjaro Christian Medical CentreP. O. Box 3010Moshi, Kilimanjaro

Contact personel:

Further important links

Tanzania Food and Drug Authority

WHO Uppsala Monitoring Centre

VIGIFLOW

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