The Perception of Patients and Clinicians on the Use of Artemisinin – Based Combination Therapy for the Management of Uncomplicated in the St Dominic Hospital, Akwatia.
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Date
2010-07-13
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Abstract
It is estimated that malaria contributes about 44% of all out patient cases and about 25% of all deaths in children under five. For nearly two decades several studies and reports in the country have thrown doubts on the efficacy of chloroquine in the management of malaria. Artemisinin - Based combination therapies/Act have replaced chloroquine in the management of malaria.
The objective of this study is to determine the perception of patients and clinicians on the use of ACTs in the management of uncomplicated malaria at the St. Dominic Hospital in Akwatia. The design of the research is a cross-sectional. Questionnaires were administered to both clinicians and patients. Patients treated for uncomplicated malaria at the hospital were sampled for the study.
Results showed 86.07% of patients responding to ACTs being effective, and 57.03% also said that the ACTS had no overly unbearable side effects.
Among clinicians 82.4% said the policy is a good one to have been adopted by Ghana and 58.8% of them are very satisfied with treatment outcomes whereas 35% are also satisfied with treatment outcomes. Only 5.9% of them are fairly satisfied. 52.9% of clinicians also said that side effects of the ACTS are quite mild and tolerable.
In conclusion both patients and clinicians see the ACTS as efficacious but with side effects that are quite tolerable.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Clinical and Social Pharmacy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Partial Fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.