The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has recommended the decentralisation of treatment capacity to rural Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) and the engagement of traditional rulers and healers as partners in early referral systems.

This recommendation follows the tragic death of Abuja singer, Ifunanya Nwangene due to snakebite. The association stressed the need for sustained public education to discourage harmful traditional practices, such as the use of “black stones,” which cause fatal delays.

National Chairman Pharm. Ambrose Igwekammah Eze, in a statement, warned that snakebite envenoming remains one of the most neglected public health emergencies in Nigeria.
The death of Ms Nwangene at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, catalysed these demands. While FMC Abuja clarified that antivenom was administered, the ACPN maintains that the referral trap and stock-outs in local facilities expose critical gaps.

Eze emphasised that any delay, whether due to costs or lack of trained manpower, is the difference between life and death. He noted that despite the existence of national guidelines and the inclusion of antivenoms in the National Essential Medicines List (EML), the persistent rise in fatalities raises urgent questions about the accessibility of these quality-assured drugs.

Turning this tragedy into policy action, the ACPN issued a direct call for a one-off government investment of approximately $12 million to establish a local production plant. Pharm.
Eze noted that Nigeria currently spends nearly $12 million annually on imported vials, making local manufacturing a fiscally responsible solution. He further urged the Federal Government to approve the full inclusion of antivenoms under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to subsidise the N40,000 average treatment cost, which remains prohibitive for the average rural Nigerian.

The association also condemned the administrative interference crippling Drug Revolving Funds (DRF) in public hospitals.

Eze argued that DRFs must be protected and professionally managed to prevent the “stock-out syndrome” and ensure that emergency medicines and consumables are available at all times. These systemic failures are echoed in the 2026 Global Strike Out Snakebite (SOS) report, which found that 98 per cent of Nigerian healthcare workers face extreme challenges in administering treatment.

He further demands the formal declaration of snakebite envenoming as a National Health Priority and a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). He maintained that with political will, strategic investment, and coordinated action, the cycle of preventable deaths and disabilities can be broken.

“I am confident that in the near future, deaths and disabilities resulting from snakebites will become largely preventable and ultimately a thing of the past,” he stated.