Make your use of medicines safer: report suspected adverse reactions in children and during pregnancy.

For the second year, the Bulgarian Drugs Agency (BDA) launched an online campaign to promote the importance of reporting suspected adverse drug reactions.

The campaign, to be held from 19-23 November 2018, is part of an "awareness week" involving 32 EU, Latin American, Australian, New Zealand and Middle East medicines regulators. Regulatory bodies will jointly focus on enhancing the reporting of suspected adverse reactions in infants and children as well as during pregnancy and lactation.

Last year, reports for children represented a very small percentage of all reported suspected adverse reactions.

Although medicines are safe and effective, they can cause side effects. It is important that the risks associated with medicines are understood and communicated to healthcare professionals and their patients, including parents, carers or those who are planning or expecting a baby.

Possible side effects may range from mild to rapid transient to serious, requiring medical intervention. Their reporting can help regulators monitor the safe use of the medicines on the market and take the necessary action to prevent possible future harms.

Regulators, such as the BDA, rely on reporting suspected adverse reactions to obtain more information on the safety of medicines on the market. Unfortunately, there is a low activity on all reporting systems. For this reason, our campaign is important both for raising awareness and improving the reporting system.

This year, the UN's World Children's Day is held within the "Awareness Week", both campaigns striving to promote international unity to improve the well-being of children.

КThe campaign is supported by the WHO Uppsala Monitoring Center (UMC) in Uppsala, Sweden, where cartoons have been developed to promote ADR reporting.

A number of organizations, including the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Commission, patient organizations and a non-governmental alliance of rare disease patient organizations, also promise their support.

The campaign begins today, 19th of November! 32 regulatory authorities around the world are uniting their efforts to encourage the reporting of adverse drug reactions in children and during pregnancy. Follow our publications and help us reach more people!

Announcement of adverse reactions helps the safe use of medicines by babies, children and pregnant women. Report the possible adverse drug reactions: Bulgarian Drug Agency: tel.: +359 2 8903417; e-mail: bda@bda.bg, online: www.bda.bg/Application Application for reporting of suspected side effects by non-medical individuals.