ISSN: 2640-2653
Authors: Mbah M*, Sunday OI and Mark OO
Malaria is a disease transmitted from person to person through the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. Successful malaria control depends heavily on efficacious anti-malarial drugs. The manners in which anti-malaria drugs are used among urban dwellers contribute immensely to the development of resistant strain and therapeutic failure. This review was a descriptive Cross-sectional study carried out to assess anti-malarial drug use among urban dwellers in Calabar Municipality in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three hundred and eighty structured questionnaires were administered randomly to access the attitude and knowledge of respondents in terms of drugs preference, attitude to drug use and the effect of non-compliance to anti-malarial drugs. A total of 355 questionnaires were retrieved from the respondents. On the other hand, 60 questionnaires were also distributed to drugs vendors to access the most prescribed type of drugs and the attitude of customers as regards the type and choices of drugs acquisition. Of the 27 types of anti-malarial drugs sold in the pharmacies and chemist stores, Lonart 15(14%) was the most common drug sold, followed by Amatem 10(9%), while Maloxine was not sold at all in the pharmacies. In the chemist stores, Lonart 12(13%) and Coartem 9(9%) were the most often sold drugs while Halfan and Clomaxine were not sold at all. In the monthly prescriptions, Lonart 876(12%) was the most often prescribed drug followed by Coartem 628(9%) and Amatem 600(8%) while the least often prescribed drugs were Artemether, Clomaxine, Halfan and Atequine. Based on Doctors’ recommendation, Lumartem 38(14%) was the most frequently sold drug followed by P-Alaxin 33(12%). The results of the survey have shown that Lonart, Coartem, Lumartem, Amatem and P-Alaxin were the most commonly sold and prescribed anti-malarial drugs.
Keywords: Tropical parasitic diseases; Antimalarial medicines; Drugs; Self-medication; Plasmodium; Anemia
