Health workers in Nigeria waste thousands of expensive malaria drugs prescribing them to patients who do not have malaria, a new research by experts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has revealed. About 5,000 health workers working in public health facilities, pharmacies and drug stores from 40 communities in Enugu State were involved in the research. According to the study, patients are often given malaria drugs based on their signs and symptoms, contrary to standard recommendations by the World Health Organisation that patients’ blood should be tested for the presence of malaria parasites before confirmed cases are treated with Artemisin-based Combination Therapy.While fearing adverse reactions, the researchers suggest the provision of simple diagnostic tools such as the Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests, for health workers in remote locations to enable them to make correct malaria diagnosis and prescription. In an email to our correspondent, the Lead Author, Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe, said there were a number of reasons why health workers do not test patients before prescribing drugs, adding that the outcome of the research had indicated that malaria might continue to be a major health burden for many years to come in the country.
“Sometimes the simple diagnostic tools are not available. However, most health workers feel (wrongly) that almost all fevers are malaria and they just treat presumptively. Also, some health workers already have an ingrained bad habit of treating without proper laboratory diagnosis. In addition, some providers may want to maximise their profits and so will provide treatment to all patients that come to them without diagnosis.
The major harm is that malaria may not be eliminated in Nigeria and will continue to be a major disease burden, causing deaths and disability especially to children under five years and pregnant women.’’
Source:Medical World Nigeria
