When you pick up a prescription or buy medicine over the counter, how do you know it’s safe? Behind the scenes, health authorities monitor medicines for unexpected side effects, quality concerns and counterfeit products. Belize has now strengthened its ability to do exactly that after becoming a full member of the World Health Organization’s Programme for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM).
Belize can now submit reports directly to VigiBase, the WHO’s global database of medicine safety reports.
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According to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the achievement “recognises the significant progress made in strengthening Belize’s national pharmacovigilance system and its capacity to respond to medicine-related safety concerns.”
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which has supported Belize’s efforts for several years, said full membership “recognises Belize’s growing capacity to detect, assess, understand, and prevent adverse effects or other medicine-related problems, while contributing data and expertise to the global network coordinated by the WHO.”
Belize first joined the programme as an associate member in 2020. Since then, the country has strengthened its Drug Inspectorate Unit, improved post-market surveillance, expanded adverse event reporting, and linked its national reporting systems to WHO’s global medicine safety database.
The Ministry said the new status “will allow Belize to contribute more actively to international medicines safety monitoring and access global safety information to better protect patients.”
PAHO added that Belize’s inclusion will allow the country to “access international analyses and safety information and contribute to the global detection of medicine-related risks.”
