Prescription patterns and drug use among pregnant women with febrile Illnesses in Uganda: a survey in out-patient clinics.

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMbonye, Anthony K.
dc.contributor.authorBirungi, Josephine
dc.contributor.authorYanow, Stephanie
dc.contributor.authorMagnussen, Pascal
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-24T14:06:55Z
dc.date.available2018-07-24T14:06:55Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.descriptionThe main objective was to assess prescription patterns and drug use in pregnancy especially SP; and draw implications on the efficacy of SP for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp).en_US
dc.description.abstractBackground: Malaria is a public health problem in Uganda; affecting mainly women and children. Effective treatment has been hampered by over-diagnosis and over-treatment with anti-malarial drugs among patients presenting with fever. In order to understand the effect of drug pressure on sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance in pregnancy, a sample of pregnant women presenting with fever in out–patient clinics was studied. The main objective was to assess prescription patterns and drug use in pregnancy especially SP; and draw implications on the efficacy of SP for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp). Methods: A total of 998 pregnant women with a history of fever were interviewed and blood samples taken for diagnosis of malaria and HIV infections. Data were captured on the drugs prescribed for the current febrile episode and previous use of drugs especially SP, anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) and cotrimoxazole. Results: Few pregnant women, 128 (12.8%) were parasitaemic for P.falciparum; and of these, 72 (56.3%) received first-line treatment with Artemether-lumefantrine (Coartem®) 14 (10.9%) SP and 33 (25.8%) quinine. Of the parasite negative patients (non-malarial fevers), 186 (21.4%) received Coartem, 423 (48.6%) SP and 19 (2.1%) cotrimoxazole. Overall, malaria was appropriately treated in 35.5% of cases. Almost all febrile pregnant women, 91.1%, were sleeping under a mosquito net. The majority of them, 911 (91.3%), accepted to have an HIV test done and 92 (9.2%) were HIV positive. Of the HIV positive women, 23 (25.0%) were on ARVs, 10 (10.9%) on cotrimoxazole and 30 (32.6%) on SP. A significant proportion of women, 40 (43.5%), were on both SP and cotrimoxazole. Age and occupation were associated with diagnosis and treatment of malaria and HIV infections. Conclusion: There is inappropriate treatment of malaria and non-malarial fevers among pregnant women in these facilities. This is due to non-adherence to the guidelines. Over-prescription and use of anti-malarial drugs, especially SP may have implications on resistance against SP for malaria prevention in pregnancy. The policy implications of these findings are to evaluate SP efficacy as IPTp; and the need to enforce adherence to the current clinical treatment guidelines.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMbonye, Anthony K. Birungi, Josephine, Yanow, Stephanie and Magnussen, Pascal, 2013. Prescription patterns and drug use among pregnant women with febrile Illnesses in Uganda: a survey in out-patient clinics.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11951/272
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectMalariaen_US
dc.subjectPregnant womenen_US
dc.subjectAppropriate treatmenten_US
dc.subjectUgandaen_US
dc.titlePrescription patterns and drug use among pregnant women with febrile Illnesses in Uganda: a survey in out-patient clinics.en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Mbonye et al._Prescription patterns and drug use among pregnant women with febrile illnesses in Uganda a survey in out-patient clinics_2013.pdf
Size:
188.3 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in the BMC Infectious Diseases, Vol.13, 2013. doi:10.1186/1471-2334-13-237; published by BioMed Central, all rights reserved.
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.97 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
UCU School of Medicine