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Anti-malarial prescribing practices in Sudan eight years after introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies and implications for development of drug resistance

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, March 2015
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Title
Anti-malarial prescribing practices in Sudan eight years after introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies and implications for development of drug resistance
Published in
BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, March 2015
DOI 10.1186/s40360-015-0002-4
Pubmed ID
Authors

Abeer Abuzeid Atta Elmannan, Khalid Abdelmutalab Elmardi, Yassir Ali Idris, Jonathan M Spector, Nahid Abdelgadir Ali, Elfatih Mohamed Malik

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. Sudan revised its malaria treatment policy accordingly in 2004. However, eight years after ACTs were introduced in Sudan the patterns of ACT prescribing practices among health care providers remain unclear. We systematically analyzed use of ACTs in a large number of primary health facilities and we discuss the public health implications of our findings. This cross-sectional study was based on WHO's guidance for investigating drug use in health facilities. Data were collected from 40 randomly selected primary health centers in five localities in Gezira State, Sudan. The primary outcome of the study was the proportion of patients who were adequately managed according to Sudan's recommended malaria treatment guidelines. Twelve drug-use indicators were used to assess key ACT prescribing practices. One thousand and two hundred patients diagnosed with uncomplicated malaria were recruited into the study. ACT was prescribed for 88.6%patients and artemether injections were (incorrectly) prescribed in 9.5% of cases. Only 40.9% of patients in the study were correctly diagnosed and 26.9% were adequately managed according to the nationally recommended treatment guidelines. Incorrect prescribing activities included failure to use generic medicine names (88.2%), incorrect dosage (27.7%), and unexplained antibiotic co-prescription (24.2%). Dispensing practices were also poor, with labeling practices inadequate (97.1%) and insufficient information given to patients about their prescribed treatment (50.5%). Irrational malaria treatment practices are common in Sudan. This has important public health implications since failure to adhere to nationally recommended guidelines could play a role in the future development of drug resistance. As such, identifying ways to improve the anti-malarial prescribing practices of heath workers in Sudan may be a priority.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 82 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 1%
Burkina Faso 1 1%
Unknown 80 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 19 23%
Researcher 15 18%
Student > Bachelor 13 16%
Student > Postgraduate 6 7%
Other 5 6%
Other 12 15%
Unknown 12 15%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 28 34%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 13 16%
Nursing and Health Professions 6 7%
Chemistry 4 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 4%
Other 14 17%
Unknown 14 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 February 2017.
All research outputs
#18,410,971
of 22,805,349 outputs
Outputs from BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology
#311
of 439 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#192,656
of 263,417 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology
#8
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,805,349 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 11th percentile – i.e., 11% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 439 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.3. This one is in the 17th percentile – i.e., 17% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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