March 1998 - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

UMChttp://www.who-umc.org/DynPage.aspx?id=14292Page 2 of 82010-06-23In early 1998 two new persons were employed. Ms Inger Forssell is our new sales assistantwho will also take care of accounting for the Centre. Ms Erica Wallette, replacing MonicaPettersson during her extended maternity leave, will mainly be working with processing ofincoming adverse reaction reports.News from around the worldAustraliaThe former head of the national pharmacovigilance centre in Australia, Dr Alain Rohan, hasnow become director of pharmacovigilance at the company 3M in Saint Paul, Minesota,USA. He may be contacted by fax (+1-612-7336068) or e-mail (arohan1@mmm.com)European UnionAt the office of the Commission of the European Union, Directorate General III, in BrusselsDr Ana de Vasconcelos Batalha now has the responsibility for pharmacovigilance issues, inthis function succeeding Mr Philippe Meyer, who has moved to DG I. Dr Batalha paid a veryshort visit to our centre in November 97.New ZealandThe Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) has got a new head after Dr PeterPillans, who late 1997 took up a position as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at PrincessAlexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. He is replaced by Dr David Coulter, since long headof the Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme.South AfricaDr Ushma Mehta supervised a pharmacovigilance training course held in Cape Town on 29November. There were 14 participants including representatives from Ethiopia, Sudan,Scotland, Moczambique, Ghana and South Africa. The principles of problem-based teachingwere used. Questions like when to report, who should report, confidentiality and the specialconcerns of African countries, created a lot of discussion during this short course that mightbe repeated next year.SudanCommissioned by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr RonnieMeyboom of the Netherlands spent the two first weeks of 1998 in Sudan, lecturing aboutpharmacovigilance and how to set up a national centre. His report will contain a plan onhow such a centre may be established in the country.TanzaniaMs Rose Shija, the former head of the Tanzania Drug and Toxicology Information Service(TADATIS) in Dar-es-Salaam, has left the centre for another post in Ministry of Health. MrHenry Irunde is now head of the centre which has established new headquarters within thepremises of the Pharmacy Board. The relevant address is TADATIS, Pharmacy Board,P.O.Box 77150, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaCourses and meetings in pharmacovigilanceCoursesInstituto de Saud Publica de Chile is going to organize a training course in adverse reactionmonitoring in Santiago de Chile, 15 - 20 June, 1998. The syllabus is based on that