Antimalarial Drug Use in the Paediatric Wards at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Abstract

The pattern of drug-use in cases of malaria infection either on prescription basis or self-medication can result in high incidence of resistant strain and therapeutic failure. The present study evaluates the pattern of antimalarial drug use in children in a tertiary hospital. A prospective study of medical case files of paediatrics that were prescribed antimalarial drugs for four months period in 2015 was undertaken. Patient records of 446 were selected, 227 (50.9%) were males, 55.2% were between 1-5yrs of age. 72.2% were treated for uncomplicated malaria, 49.6% were prescribed ACT, antimalarial drug tablets had the highest dosage forms (60.2%), and had highest administration in the month of September (16.7%) and 81.6% of these drugs were prescribed in trade name. Periodic monitoring of antimalarial drug use pattern is important to prevent the early emergence of resistance to the highly effective anti-malarial drugs presently in use.