A TEN YEAR STUDY OF THE MANAGEMENT OF MALARIA AT A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA. Research Article

This retrospective study was carried out to investigate drug management pattern of malaria among patients admitted at the University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria during the ten year period of 1997 to 2006. A total of three hundred and seventy four (374) case notes consisting of 204 (54.5%) males and 170 (45.5%) females from the medical record that satisfied the inclusion criteria were randomly selected. Each case note was thoroughly studied. Ninety seven (97) (25.9%) were referral cases while 266 (71.1%) were recent cases. The most common symptom fever, accounted for 310 (27.5%) cases. Nausea and vomiting accounted for 149 (13.2%) cases and anemia 162 (14.3%) with convulsion being 83 (7.4%) cases. The drug management indicated chloroquine prescriptions was used in 134 (26.5%) cases, quinine 93 (18.4%) cases, artemeter (ART) 88 (17.4%) cases while amodiaquine was prescribed in 72 (14.3%) cases. Intravenous (I.V) fluids were administered in 134 (18.0%) cases. Between 2003 and 2006, number of cases of chloroquine use dropped from 35 (41.7%) to 4 (8.2%) while the cases of ACTs use increased from 4 (4.8%) to 22 (44.9%). It was observed that patients on chloroquine (CQ) therapy were hospitalized for seven (7) days while patients on artesunate combination therapies (ACTs) were hospitalized for 5 days. The chloroquine therapy was at its peak in 2003 and declined from 2004 to 2006. The study showed that malaria management improved within the 10 years (1997-2006) with a consequent decrease in the chloroquine use and increase in use of artemisinin combination therapy (ACTs).