Rome, 13 February – Reduce by 50%, over the next five years, the avoidable damage associated with the use of medicines.

This is the goal of the awareness campaign launched by the World Health Organization, for tackle errors in administering and taking medications, a major cause of avoidable harm in healthcare systems worldwide. Globally, the cost of medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion annually.

Errors, WHO observes, can occur at different stages of the drug use process and also be linked to factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages, which affect prescribing, transcription, distribution, administration and monitoring practices and can thus cause serious harm, disability and even death.

Multiple interventions have already been developed to address the frequency and impact of medication errors, but more needs to be done and, according to WHO, broad stakeholder mobilization is needed to support even more effective initiatives.

Also for this, the global campaign Medication Without Harm it is aimed at everyone, based on the principle that each patient and each healthcare professional has a role to play in ensuring the safety of medicines. The WHO campaign to reduce the harms associated with the use of medicines, by improving practices and reducing medication errors, is centered on the slogan know. Check. ask  (Know. Check. Question), for the dissemination of which it was made a specific video available on youtube. Further information on the important initiative is available on the WHO website, at this link.