Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluation of Adverse Drug Reactions to Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy in a Nigeria University Community.

R Adisa , T O Fakeye, D Dike

Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Administration, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.;

For correspondence:- R Adisa Email: adisaras73@yahoo.co.uk Tel:+2348034226199

Published: 21 June 2008

Citation: Adisa R, Fakeye TO, Dike D. Evaluation of Adverse Drug Reactions to Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy in a Nigeria University Community.. Trop J Pharm Res 2008; 7(2):937-944 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v7i2.2

© 2008 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: The study was carried out to evaluate the incidence of adverse reactions to antimalarial drugs among residents of a Nigeria university community with a focus on artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). Specifically, the profile of use, and the reporting culture of people with respect to experienced reactions were noted.

Method: Questionnaires were administered to respondents at the university health centre between November 2006 and January 2007. Information on demographic characteristics, nature of experienced adverse reactions and the most frequently used ACT, among other questions, were collected. Descriptive statistics and Fisher’s Exact test were used to evaluate the distribution of respondent’s opinion.

Result: The study achieved a response rate of 86%. The results revealed that 210 (70.0 %) of respondents said they had used artemisinin-based combination drugs while 134 (44.7 %) said they used artemisinin derivatives alone as monotherapy for malaria treatment. Artesunate plus amodiaquine 94 (31.3%) as a co-packaged product was the most commonly used ACT. Incidence of the experienced adverse reactions to ACT was reported to be generally mild and well tolerated.

Conclusion: Efforts to improve the use of ACT in the management of acute uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria is recommended. Furthermore, an effective mechanism to improve reporting of adverse effects of ACT is also recommended

Keywords: Adverse Drug Reaction, Artemisinin- combination therapy (ACT), malaria