Combating Antibiotic Resistance In Tropical Countries –Don’t Ignore Patent Medicine Vendors
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reemphasized the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (including antibiotic resistance) partly due to inappropriate medicine use by healthcare providers. Patent medicine (PM) vendors are a large group of informal healthcare providers licensed to sell over-the-counter drugs but not antibiotics. This study investigated PM Vendor’s treatment of sick children under 5 years in order to determine whether drugs they use may contribute to antibiotic resistance.METHODS: Questionnaire interviews of 491 PM Vendors in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, Africa. RESULTS: Fever, diarrhea, measles, cough were the common illnesses treated. The proportion who used antibiotics varied with type of illness- 15.8% for fever, 77.3% diarrhea, 74.9% measles, 47.7% cough/catarrh and 39(57.4%) of 68 who treated pneumonia. Some 117 (23.8%) PM Vendors had training in western medicine (mainly in nursing) and most of them prescribed antibiotics more often than PM Vendors without such training (p<0 .001=".001" another="another" antibiotics="antibiotics" be="be" because="because" doses.="doses." effective.="effective." even="even" expectations="expectations" for="for" meet="meet" needed="needed" not="not" of="of" parents.="parents." percent="percent" pm="pm" prescribed="prescribed" prescribing="prescribing" reason="reason" strong="strong" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.22em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" substandard="substandard" the="the" them="them" thirty-seven="thirty-seven" thought="thought" to="to" used="used" vendors="vendors" was="was" were="were" when="when">CONCLUSION:
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