Comparative assessment, awareness and perception of community pharmacists on use of malaria rapid diagnostic test in Lagos state
Keywords:
Malaria, RDT, Microscopy, Awareness, Perception, PharmacistsAbstract
Background: Presumptive treatment of malaria has led to over diagnosis and over use of antimalarial leading to development of resistance to antimalarial medications. The gold standard for the detection of malaria is microscopic examination. However, the development of RDTs made it possible to get reliable diagnostic testing at all times where previously only clinical diagnosis was available.
Method: A cross sectional study which involved 223 Patients and 321 Community Pharmacists in Lagos state, a south western part of Nigeria. Patients, who presented to the Pharmacy with symptoms such as chills, loss of appetite and other symptoms suggestive of malaria were recruited, and tested using RDT kit, and laboratory microscopic evaluation. An open and closed ended administered Questionnaires was used to assess the awareness and perception of Pharmacists on the use of RDT.
Results: RDT had a sensitivity of 14.29% and a specifificity of 100%. The negative predictive value gotten from the study was 11.33% and a positive predictive value of 100%. The Community Pharmacists indicated high awareness, and were also of the opinion that RDTs were unreliable.
Conclusion: From this study, it was shown that RDT kit is not an effiffifficient diagnostic tool for detecting malaria, as the result obtained showed low sensitivity as compared to microscopy. The study also explains why, community Pharmacists are aware of the use of RDT, but lack the willingness to use it. Hence, microscopy still remains a better and more reliable tool for detecting presence of malaria parasite.
References
World Health Organization. (2021) Malaria h tt p s://www.wh o .i n t/ n ews-r o om/f a c t- sheets/detail/malaria. Assessed 12th January,
Centre for disease control.(2018) Malaria Available at https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/ Assessed 4th November.2021
World Health organization. (2006) WHO briefing on malaria treatment guidelines and artemisinin monotherapies. World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland. https://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/meeting_briefing19april.pdfAssessed 12th January, 2022.
Amexo M,Tolhurst R, Barnish G, Bates I.(2004) Malaria misdiagnosis: effects on the poor and vulnerable. The Lancet 364: 1896 - 8.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17446-1
Nandwani S, Mathur M, Rawat S.(2005) Evaluation of the polymerase chain reaction analysis for diagnosis of falciparum malaria in Delhi India. Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology 23(3): 176 - 178. https://doi.org/10.4103/0255-0857.16590
Singh N, Saxena A, Awadhia SB, Shrivastava R, Singh MP. (2005) Evaluation of rapid diagnostic test for assessing the burden of malaria at delivery in India. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 73(5): 855-858
WHO, Find, CDC. (2014) Malaria rapid diagnostic test performance. Result of WHO product testing of malaria RDTs: round 5 (2013). Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241507554. Assessed 12th January ,2022
Okai GA, Abekah-Nkrumah G, & Asuming PO. (2019) Perceptions and trends in the use of community Pharmacies in Ghana. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice. 12 :25
Bornman S, Truter I, Venter DJL. (2006) Public perception of community pharmacists in South Africa: a preliminary study. Health SA Gesondheid 11(3): 27-40.
Goodman C, Brieger W, Unwin A, Mills A, Meek S, & Greer G. ( 2007) Medicine sellers and malaria treatment in sub-Saharan Africa: What do they do and how can their practice be improved?. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 77(6): 203-218.
Ojurongbe O, Adegbosin OO, Taiwo SS, Alli OT, Olowe OA, Ojurongbe TA, Oloyede SB, & Adeyeba OA. (2013) Assessment of clinical diagnosis, microscopy, rapid diagnostic tests, and polymerase chain reaction in the diagnosis of plasmodium falciparum in Nigeria. Malaria R search and Treatment 308069 -5. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/308069
WHO/information for travellers: https://www.who.int/malaria/travellers. Updated 15th January ,2020. Assessed on 4th November, 2021.
Maltha J, Gillet P, Bottieau E, Cnops L, Esbroeck MV, & Jacobs J.(2010) Evaluation of rapid diagnostic test (CareStart TM malaria HRP-2/
pLDH(pf/pan) combo test) for diagnosis of malaria in a reference setting. Malaria Journal 9: 171
Garba BI, Muhammad AS, Musa A, Edem B, Yusuf I, Bello NK, Adeniji AO, Kolawole T. (2016) Diagnosis of malaria: A comparison between microscopy and rapid diagnostic test among under-five children at Gusau, Nigeria. Sub-Suharan African Journal of Medicine 3:96-101
Hopkins H, Bruxvoot KJ, Cairns ME, Chandler CI, Leurent B, Ansah EK, Baiden F, Baltzell KA. (2017) Impact of introduction of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria on antibiotic prescribing: analysis of observational and randomised studies in public and private healthcare settings. British Medical Journal 356: j1054.
Msellem MI, Martensson A, Rotllant G, Bhattarai A, Stromberg J, Kahigwa E, Garcia M, Petzold M, Olumese P. (2009) Influence of rapid malaria diagnostic tests on treatment and health outcome in fever patients, Zanzibar: a crossover validation study. PLoS Medicine Journal 6: 1000070.
Batwala V, Magnussen P, Nuwaha F. (2011) Comparative feasibility of implementing rapid diagnostic test and microscopy for parasitological Diagnosis of malaria in Uganda. Malaria Journal 10: 373.
Metoh TN, Fru TC, Fongah P, Zhou X. (2020) Histidine Rich Protein –II-based Rapid Diagnostic Test (HRP-2 RDT) assessment for malaria Diagnosis in Bamenda urban settings in the North western highlands of Cameroon. IEEE –SEME 8(6): 49-55
Oyetunde TO, Ogunlade AF, Oyewole IO.(2015) Comparative assessment of microscopy and rapid Diagnostic test. As malaria Diagnostic Tools. Research Journal of Parasitology 10(3): 120-126. https://doi.org/10.3923/jp.2015.120.126
Obi H, Sabitu K, Olorukooba A, Adebowale AS, Usman R, Nwokoro U, Ajumobi O, Idris S, Nwankwo L, Ajayi IO. (2019) Health workers perception of rapid diagnostic test result in Ebonyi State Nigeria. PLoSone. 14(10): e0223869. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223869
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
