The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7168 p470-481
6 October 2001

BPC 2001 summary

Pharmacists and malaria

Malaria is on the increase and pharmacists should be aware of the disease and its treatment, JOHN BELL, president, Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association, said.

In 1997, around 2,300 people returned to the United Kingdom from visits overseas with malaria and 12 of these had died. The symptoms of malaria are non-specific, mostly fever and gastrointestinal upset, and death can occur within 24 hours. World-wide, 300–500 million cases a year are seen, causing 2-3 million deaths, mainly among children and pregnant women in Africa.

Pharmacists need to be up to date with the disease and its treatment, Mr Bell said. He recommended two recent articles in The Pharmaceutical Journal (11 March 2000, pp405–10 and 21 July 2001, pp92–7 (PDF* 80K)) as a good starting point.

The main approach is one of ABCD:

• Awareness of the disease
• Bites (avoiding)
• Compliance with prophylactic medicines
• prompt Diagnosis and treatment of the disease

Further information is available from the World Health Organization and in an Australian book “Taking the mystery out of malaria”.

The CPA has set up a joint task force with the WHO and the International Pharmaceutical Federation to promote better health outcomes and the role of the pharmacist in preventing and treating malaria.

  * PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat Reader 4 or later.