ISDS Annual Conference Proceedings 2019. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 

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Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * 11(1): e393, 2019 

ISDS 2019 Conference Abstracts 

Knowledge of Malaria and Antimalarial Drug Dispensing 
Practices in Buea Community 

Marcelus U. Ajonina1, 2 

1
Health Sciences, Meridian Global University, Buea, CENTRAL REGION, Cameroon, 

2
Meridian Global Education and Research Foundation, Buea, 

Southwest Region, Cameroon 

Objective 

This study was aimed at assessing the knowledge of malaria as well as perception and dispensing practices of antimalarials among 

vendors in Buea community 

Introduction 

Lack of knowledge of rational use of antimalarial drugs among dispensers is a serious problem, especially in areas of intense 

transmission thus increasing the risk of resistance and adverse drug reactions. 

Methods 

A community-based cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 140 drug vendors living within the Buea community was 

conducted between March and June 2017. Questionnaire was designed to obtain information from drug vendors on the general 

knowledge of malaria as well as dispensing practices. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 20.0 and were considered 

significant at P ≤ 0.05 

Results 

Knowledge of malaria symptoms, transmission, and prevention was reasonable among 55.8% (77) of the respondents. Only 33.6% 

(47) of the respondents could attribute the cause of malaria to protozoan of genus Plasmodium species. Of the 140 vendors, 

115(82.7%) prescribe antimalarial drugs. The knowledge of the national protocol was malaria case management among dispensers 

was 35.0%. Vendors in hospital/community pharmacies were 2.4 times (OR = 3.14, 95% CI: 

4.14 - 8.74, P < 0.001). more knowledgeable about malaria treatment protocol than those of in drugstores. The prevalence of self-

prescription of antimalarials was 39.3%. Self-prescription was significantly higher in drugstores than hospital/community 

pharmacies (P=0.004). In all, 56(40.6%) of vendors showed good practices regarding antimalarial drug dispensing with majority 

(51.7%) from community pharmacies (OR=2.27,95% CI: 1.13-4.56). 

Conclusions 

Findings reveal moderate knowledge of malaria but poor prescription and dispensing practices of antimalarial drugs among vendors, 

thus indicating a need for routine monitoring and evaluation to prevent emergence of resistant strains to current efficacious 

antimalarials 

Acknowledgement 

We thank the all participants from various drug retail outlets from the Buea community who made this study possible by giving 

their consent. We equally thank Meridian Global Education and Research Foundation (MGERF), Cameroon for financial support. 

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