Self-medication with antimalarials drugs in Lubumbashi city (DR Congo)
1 Laboratoire de pharmacognosie – Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques – Université de Lubumbashi- 27, av Kato, Commune Kampemba, Lubumbashi-DR Congo.
2 Service de chimie thérapeutique et analyse des substances naturelles-Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques (UNILU) - 27, av Kato, Commune Kampemba, Lubumbashi-DR Congo.
3 Laboratoire de Chimie organique – Faculté des Sciences Université de Lubumbashi- 2 av de la maternité, Commune de Lubumbashi -Lubumbashi-DR Congo.
Research Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2020, 12(02), 007-020.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2020.12.2.0228
Publication history:
Received on 17 July 2020; revised on 01 August 2020; accepted on 03 August 2020
Abstract:
Self-medication for malaria is very common in Sub-Saharan Africa where this parasitosis is endemic. In order to determine the extent, characteristics and factors associated with this practice in medical area in the city of Lubumbashi, a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out by direct interview from January 2018 to June 2018, in the internal medicine departments of 10 General Referral Hospital (GRH) . Five thousand one hundred and thirty-four patients were consulted among them, 96.6% (average age 38.7 ± 8 years; average income: 100 ± 12 USD; gender male/ female ratio: 0.86) practice self-medication with antimalarials. They used it for the first time at an average age of 13-17 years. Quinine (36.4%) and Carica papaya (0.4%) are the most used remedies in conventional and non-conventional medicine, respectively. Several risks are incurred during this practice when the most cited are worsening side effects (53%), incomplete treatment (37%) and appearance to health sciences (37%). Age (17-35 and > 65 years old), low income (50-150 USD), membership in a health sector and the claim to know antimalarial drugs, predispose patients to self-medication. There is an urgent need to regulate this practice to avoid its harmful consequences.
Keywords:
Self-prescription; General Referral Hospital; Haut-Katanga; Antimalarial; Quinine; Carica papaya.
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Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
