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Home case management of malaria: an ethnographic study of lay people's classification of drugs in Suneka Division, Kenya
Author(s) -
Nyamongo Isaac K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3156.1999.00484.x
Subject(s) - malaria , chloroquine , medicine , first line , resistance (ecology) , family medicine , traditional medicine , immunology , biology , ecology
Summary Lay people in malaria‐affected regions frequently have to choose from many over‐the‐counter malaria management drugs, requiring them to be able to identify these medications and distinguish between them. Lay people make these distinctions at two levels – age of the patient and the whether he or she has fever, pain or malaria. Sometimes decisions are based on incorrect information given by friends and relatives, causing prolonged suffering to the patient, exascerbating chloroquine resistance and leading to resistance to the sulfodoxine/pyrymethamine drugs now recommended as first‐line treatment in Kenya.