Delivery of the antimalaria on advice in pharmacies deprived of the district of Bamako, Mali

Abstract

Context and Objective: Malaria is a well-known disease of the Malian population; as a result pharmacists are giving more and more advices regarding this disease to the population. In order to better understand the problem of the delivery of antimalarials without prescription, we initiated this study with the objective of studying the practice of dispensing antimalarials without prescription in accordance with the guidelines of Mali's national malaria program.

Patient and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study on the delivery of antimalarials based on counseling. We included in the study all clients aged 15 years and over who were received in Bamako pharmacies for a non-prescription antimalarial medication for themselves or for another person based on mutual consentment.

Results: The study was carried out in 199 of the 230 pharmacies in the district of Bamako; we recorded 466 requests for advice. The sex ratio M / F was 1.7 and 28.9% of clients for whom the drug was intended were under 20 years of age, in which case 52.4% of  the costumers were not the actual patients. Artemisinin-based combination therapy was the most recommended (52%). Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine was the most widely purchased antimalarial among non-CTA antimalarials. In 34.5% of cases, antimalarials are associated with other therapeutic classes where analgesics / antipyretics constitute 77.6% of these classes followed by antibiotics (21%).

Conclusion: The pharmacy is the first resort in the healthcare system for the majority of clients with clinical suspicion of malaria.

Keywords: Advice, malaria, pharmacy, Bamako