Pain & Fever Drugs in Nigeria

Paracetamol is probably the most consumed medicine in Nigeria, full stop. It is in every home, every kiosk, every handbag — as Panadol, Boska, Emzor Paracetamol, and a dozen other brands — and at a few hundred naira a pack it is also one of the cheapest. Behind it come ibuprofen and diclofenac for stronger pain and inflammation, and tramadol at the far end, a genuinely useful opioid painkiller that has also become one of Nigeria's most abused substances and is now tightly controlled by the NDLEA.

The main dangers in this category are quiet ones. Paracetamol is safe at normal doses but seriously damages the liver in overdose, and because it hides inside many cold-and-flu combinations, people sometimes take it twice without realising. Diclofenac and ibuprofen, taken daily for years for arthritis or back pain, are a common cause of stomach ulcers and kidney trouble. None of this makes these drugs bad — it makes the label worth reading.