MALARIA TREATMENT BY COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA

*Chijioke-Nwauche Ifeyinwa and Ogoh Christian

ABSTRACT

Adherence to guidelines for the treatment of malaria is a very important key factor in effective control of malaria. Self-medication and high rates of treatment seeking in private sector are among the major challenges to malaria control because they contribute to the misuse and poor administration of antimalarial drug thereby increasing the possibility of increased drug resistance. A prospective, descriptive, cross sectional study was carried out to assess the malaria treatment and consumption of anti-malarial drugs in community pharmacies in Port-Harcourt between the months of December 2016 to January, 2017. Collected data include mode, pattern and cost of treatment, drugs used, and pharmacists’ basis of choice of treatment. Results show that 81.1% of the pharmacists treated the malaria according to the national policy of testing before treatment as well as use of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) based drugs. The most sold/recommended ACT was artemether-lumefantrine (78.2%) followed by dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (15.4%). Median cost for treating one episode of malaria inclusive of co-medications was N1, 250 ($3.45). Sale of monotherapy and other non-ACT drugs was also observed from the study. Need for strict enforcement of national guidelines for malaria treatment is advocated.

Keywords: Malaria, treatment, community pharmacists, guidelines.