Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria
Abstract Background Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years of age in Nigeria. Most of the early treatments for fever and malaria occur through self-medication with anti-malarials bought over-the-counter (OTC) from untrained drug vendors. Self-medicat...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f41ed79538c94f1885d0966adbea3581 2023-05-15T15:16:15+02:00 Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria Uzochukwu Benjamin SC Okeke Theodora A 2009-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 https://doaj.org/article/f41ed79538c94f1885d0966adbea3581 EN eng BMC http://www.malariajournal.com/content/8/1/260 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/f41ed79538c94f1885d0966adbea3581 Malaria Journal, Vol 8, Iss 1, p 260 (2009) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2009 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 2022-12-31T07:17:08Z Abstract Background Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years of age in Nigeria. Most of the early treatments for fever and malaria occur through self-medication with anti-malarials bought over-the-counter (OTC) from untrained drug vendors. Self-medication through drug vendors can be ineffective, with increased risks of drug toxicity and development of drug resistance. Global malaria control initiatives highlights the potential role of drug vendors to improve access to early effective malaria treatment, which underscores the need for interventions to improve treatment obtained from these outlets. This study aimed to determine the feasibility and impact of training rural drug vendors on community-based malaria treatment and advice with referral of severe cases to a health facility. Methods A drug vendor-training programme was carried out between 2003 and 2005 in Ugwuogo-Nike, a rural community in south-east Nigeria. A total of 16 drug vendors were trained and monitored for eight months. The programme was evaluated to measure changes in drug vendor practice and knowledge using exit interviews. In addition, home visits were conducted to measure compliance with referral. Results The intervention achieved major improvements in drug selling and referral practices and knowledge. Exit interviews confirmed significant increases in appropriate anti-malarial drug dispensing, correct history questions asked and advice given. Improvements in malaria knowledge was established and 80% compliance with referred cases was observed during the study period, Conclusion The remarkable change in knowledge and practices observed indicates that training of drug vendors, as a means of communication in the community, is feasible and strongly supports their inclusion in control strategies aimed at improving prompt effective treatment of malaria with referral of severe cases. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Malaria Journal 8 1 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Uzochukwu Benjamin SC Okeke Theodora A Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years of age in Nigeria. Most of the early treatments for fever and malaria occur through self-medication with anti-malarials bought over-the-counter (OTC) from untrained drug vendors. Self-medication through drug vendors can be ineffective, with increased risks of drug toxicity and development of drug resistance. Global malaria control initiatives highlights the potential role of drug vendors to improve access to early effective malaria treatment, which underscores the need for interventions to improve treatment obtained from these outlets. This study aimed to determine the feasibility and impact of training rural drug vendors on community-based malaria treatment and advice with referral of severe cases to a health facility. Methods A drug vendor-training programme was carried out between 2003 and 2005 in Ugwuogo-Nike, a rural community in south-east Nigeria. A total of 16 drug vendors were trained and monitored for eight months. The programme was evaluated to measure changes in drug vendor practice and knowledge using exit interviews. In addition, home visits were conducted to measure compliance with referral. Results The intervention achieved major improvements in drug selling and referral practices and knowledge. Exit interviews confirmed significant increases in appropriate anti-malarial drug dispensing, correct history questions asked and advice given. Improvements in malaria knowledge was established and 80% compliance with referred cases was observed during the study period, Conclusion The remarkable change in knowledge and practices observed indicates that training of drug vendors, as a means of communication in the community, is feasible and strongly supports their inclusion in control strategies aimed at improving prompt effective treatment of malaria with referral of severe cases. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Uzochukwu Benjamin SC Okeke Theodora A |
author_facet |
Uzochukwu Benjamin SC Okeke Theodora A |
author_sort |
Uzochukwu Benjamin SC |
title |
Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
title_short |
Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
title_full |
Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
title_fullStr |
Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
title_full_unstemmed |
Improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east Nigeria |
title_sort |
improving childhood malaria treatment and referral practices by training patent medicine vendors in rural south-east nigeria |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 https://doaj.org/article/f41ed79538c94f1885d0966adbea3581 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 8, Iss 1, p 260 (2009) |
op_relation |
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/8/1/260 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/f41ed79538c94f1885d0966adbea3581 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-260 |
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Malaria Journal |
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8 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766346544888414208 |