The role of medicine outlets and their practitioners in malaria control in Ghana

Non-policy recommended and mostly ineffective antimalarials were observed to be highly available and often supplied for malaria therapy, particularly in the retail outlets. The availability of policy-recommended medicines and in particular the artemisinin-based combination products, were rather poor (less than 45%). In addition very few of the outlets (less than 10%) strictly adhered to policy recommendations for the selection and supply of medicines for malaria therapy. On staff resources: greater than 55% had no professional training as pharmaceutical service providers. Majority of the staff assessed (greater than 80%), who included both professionals and non professionals could recognise malaria illness and advice clients on how to avoid further infections. However, very few (20%) and mainly professionals were adequately skilled to both recognise and manage the malaria cases as recommended by national guidelines.