Evaluation of antimalarial chemotherapeutic practices and outcomes in the southwest region of Nigeria
type: CreativeWork
description: With over 100 million cases of morbidity annually worldwide; control, elimination and eradication of malaria still remains a major challenge, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In some endemic countries, aggressive malaria control has reduced the malaria burden to a point where malaria elimination is becoming feasible. Nevertheless, sustained malaria control is crucial to prolong this downward trend for endemic countries. A major factor that affects the effective treatment of malaria is the lack of awareness of the recommended treatment guidelines and standardised protocols to routinely decipher the quality of the available drugs in the regions. Nigeria bears more than a quarter of the global burden of malaria, with 97% of the population at risk of the disease. The high rate of counterfeit and substandard drugs in Nigeria is therefore a barrier to effective case management of malaria. Therefore, this project proposes to qualitatively and quantitatively analyse chemotherapeutic practices and outcomes at an individual and community level in two selected states (Lagos and Osun) in the South West Region of Nigeria, in a bid to define barriers to effective case management. A quantitative approach, involving the use of questionnaires was used to explore the current pattern of malaria treatment and antimalarial drug use in Osun and Lagos State communities, pharmacies and hospitals. The study also investigated the different socio-economic factors affecting treatment behaviours in the communities. Commonly used antimalarial drugs, including Artemether combination drugs (ACTs) were also randomly sampled from the communities to check for substandard and counterfeits using in-vitro culture and FT-IR techniques. In Lagos and Osun urban regions of the study, ACTs contributed to primary treatment choice (60% and 59% respectively), although this was often a result of self-medication (50% and 46% respectively). The majority of the people in the rural regions (74% in Lagos and 57% i…
abstract: With over 100 million cases of morbidity annually worldwide; control, elimination and eradication of malaria still remains a major challenge, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In some endemic countries, aggressive malaria control has reduced the malaria burden to a point where malaria elimination is becoming feasible. Nevertheless, sustained malaria control is crucial to prolong this downward trend for endemic countries. A major factor that affects the effective treatment of malaria is the lack of awareness of the recommended treatment guidelines and standardised protocols to routinely decipher the quality of the available drugs in the regions. Nigeria bears more than a quarter of the global burden of malaria, with 97% of the population at risk of the disease. The high rate of counterfeit and substandard drugs in Nigeria is therefore a barrier to effective case management of malaria. Therefore, this project proposes to qualitatively and quantitatively analyse chemotherapeutic practices and outcomes at an individual and community level in two selected states (Lagos and Osun) in the South West Region of Nigeria, in a bid to define barriers to effective case management. A quantitative approach, involving the use of questionnaires was used to explore the current pattern of malaria treatment and antimalarial drug use in Osun and Lagos State communities, pharmacies and hospitals. The study also investigated the different socio-economic factors affecting treatment behaviours in the communities. Commonly used antimalarial drugs, including Artemether combination drugs (ACTs) were also randomly sampled from the communities to check for substandard and counterfeits using in-vitro culture and FT-IR techniques. In Lagos and Osun urban regions of the study, ACTs contributed to primary treatment choice (60% and 59% respectively), although this was often a result of self-medication (50% and 46% respectively). The majority of the people in the rural regions (74% in Lagos and 57% i…
author: Akinsola, OO
language: en
date published: 2026
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:26:26Z
provider: U. of Salford
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: U. of Salford