Challenges and lessons learned from four years of planning and implementing pharmacovigilance enhancement in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pharmacovigilance (PV) systems in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are not fully functional. The spontaneous adverse events (AE) reporting rate in SSA is lower than in any other region of the world, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in SSA countries have limited awareness of AE surveillance and reporting procedures. The GSK PV enhancement pilot initiative, in collaboration with PATH and national PV stakeholders, aimed to strengthen passive safety surveillance through a training and mentoring program of HCPs in healthcare facilities in three SSA countries: Malawi, Côte d'Ivoire, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Enhancing Pharmacovigilance in Sub-Saharan Africa Through Training and Mentoring: A GSK Pilot Initiative in Malawi.

Introduction: Pharmacovigilance (PV) systems to monitor drug and vaccine safety are often inadequate in sub-Saharan Africa. In Malawi, a PV enhancement initiative was introduced to address major barriers to PV.

Objective: The objective of this initiative was to improve reporting of adverse events (AEs) by strengthening passive safety surveillance via PV training and mentoring of local PV stakeholders and healthcare providers (HCPs) at their own healthcare facilities (HCFs).

The Escherichia coli metD locus encodes an ABC transporter which includes Abc (MetN), YaeE (MetI), and YaeC (MetQ).

We report that the genes abc, yaeC, and yaeE comprise metD, an Escherichia coli locus encoding a DL-methionine uptake system. MetD is an ABC transporter with Abc the ATPase, YaeE the permease, and YaeC the likely substrate binding protein. Expression of these genes is regulated by L-methionine and MetJ, a common repressor of the methionine regulon.