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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Antimalarial drug prescribing practice in private and public health facilities in South-east Nigeria: A descriptive study
Malaria Journal, Volume 6, Article 55, Year 2007
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Description
Background. Nigeria's national standard has recently moved to artemisinin combination treatments for malaria. As clinicians in the private sector are responsible for attending a large proportion of the population ill with malaria, this study compared prescribing in the private and public sector in one State in Nigeria prior to promoting ACTs. Objective. To assess prescribing for uncomplicated malaria in government and private health facilities in Cross River State. Method. Audit of 665 patient records at six private and seven government health facilities in 2003. Results. Clinicians in the private sector were less likely to record history or physical examination than those in public facilities, but otherwise practice and prescribing were similar. Overall, 45% of patients had a diagnostic blood slides; 77% were prescribed monotherapy, either chloroquine (30.2%), sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (22.7%) or artemisinin derivatives alone (15.8%). Some 20.8% were prescribed combination therapy; the commonest was chloroquine with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine. A few patients (3.5%) were prescribed sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine-mefloquine in the private sector, and only 3.0% patients were prescribed artemisinin combination treatments. Conclusion. Malaria treatments were varied, but there were not large differences between the public and private sector. Very few are following current WHO guidelines. Monotherapy with artemisinin derivatives is relatively common. © 2007 Meremikwu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
Meremikwu, Martin Madu
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Okomo, Uduak A.
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Nwachukwu, Chukwuemeka E.
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Oyo-Ita, Angela Ekanem
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Eke-Njoku, John
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Okebe, Joseph U.
Nigeria, Calabar
University of Calabar
Oyo-Ita, Esu
Nigeria, Calabar
Cross River State Ministry of Health
Garner, Paul A.
United Kingdom, Liverpool
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Statistics
Citations: 85
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1475-2875-6-55
e-ISSN:
14752875
Research Areas
Health System And Policy
Infectious Diseases
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Locations
Nigeria