This study interviewed nearly 1,000 patients exiting pharmacies in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda to understand how people seek malaria treatment and whether they get properly diagnosed and prescribed effective medicine. Patients frequently purchased recommended malaria treatment even without a formal blood test or prescription, and diagnostic testing rates varied enormously by country.
Publication
Treatment-Seeking Patterns for Malaria in Pharmacies in Five Sub-Saharan African Countries
Ladner J, Davis B, Audureau E, Saba J.
Malaria Journal
Published
Key Takeaways
This study interviewed nearly 1,000 patients exiting pharmacies in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda to understand how people seek malaria treatment and whether they get properly diagnosed and prescribed effective medicine. Patients frequently purchased recommended malaria treatment even without a formal blood test or prescription, and diagnostic testing rates varied enormously by country.
- Nearly 93% of patients purchased malaria medicine at the pharmacy, and about 79% of them bought the WHO-recommended treatment, even though only about half had received a blood test to confirm they actually had malaria.
- Diagnostic testing rates ranged wildly by country, from just 3.5% of patients in Ghana to over 95% in Tanzania, showing how differently malaria care is delivered from one country to the next.
- Having a formal prescription didn’t reliably predict whether someone bought the recommended treatment, suggesting pharmacies function as an independent, informal front line of malaria care.
- Reinforces that private pharmacies are central to malaria treatment across the region, and that expanding access to rapid diagnostic tests there could meaningfully cut unnecessary or incorrect drug use.
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