Malaria Treatment Patterns among Patent Medicine Vendors in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Aims: Patent medicine vendors are patronized by people from all segments of the community because they are perceived to be more accessible, caring, and less expensive than public health facilities. However, cases of poor drug prescription and treatment patterns have been reported and have resulted in injudicious use of drugs and drug resistance. This study investigated the treatment patterns of malaria by Patent Medicine Vendors in Obio/Akpor LGA, Rivers State.

Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State in November 2011.

Methodology: Systematic random sampling method was adopted to select 100 patent medicine vendors from 10 communities in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. Data was collected using a pretested interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire and was entered into an excel sheet and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.

Results: Respondents were aged 20 to 70 years. There were more females 57 (58.8%) than males 40 (41.2%). The study showed that most of the patent medicine vendors (70.1%) in treating malaria, did not confirm their diagnosis with laboratory tests. More than half of the respondents (67%) knew the World Health Organization’s recommended antimalarial drugs and dosages. Fifty one percent of the respondents used the recommended drugs as their first line drug of treatment for malaria.

Conclusion: Patent medicine vendors in Obio/Akpor LGA have considerable knowledge of the recommended treatment for malaria. However, there is still the need for them to be trained on correct prescription patterns.