DrugXpert Blog

From my industrial training (IT) days down to internship, there is one practice that resonates with drug prescribers. They always give antimalaria with paracetamol or painkillers. The paracetamol is to be taken based on body weight every 6 or 8 hours for three days. This practice is done by medical doctors and pharmacists both young and old. What is the rationale behind this practice? Rationale Of Co-administration Of Paracetamol With Antimalarial I did a small questionnaire and pulled answers from some medical doctors and pharmacists within Nigeria. My findings showed that it was more of personal reason and not based on research and evidence based treatment plan. Read Also :  Pharmacotherapy/Treatment Of Malaria To some, the paracetamol is to reduce the fever during treatment. To others, paracetamol reduces the side effects of antimalaria. World Health Organization Recommendation Co-administration Of Paracetamol With Antimalarial A look at the world health organisation standard sh...

The two most popular antimalarials in Nigeria are Coartem and Lonart. Similarity Between Lonart Vs Coartem They both contain artemether and lumefantrine. They both have different strengths for different age groups. They include 24, 18, 12 and 6 tablet of 20/120mg artemether and lumefantrine and 80/480mg of same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). These drugs also come in different formulation. Both have tablet for all age group and dispersible tablet for children. Read Also:  Why iron and vitamin C interfere with lonart or Coartem Difference Coartem Coartem Coartem is made by Swiss pharmaceutical company known as Novartis international AG. It was internationally licenced and approved in 1999. That was after a series of tests and research in collaboration with chinese scientist. The World health organisation (WHO) added artemether and lumefantrine combination in essential medicine list (EML) in 2004 and EML for children in 2007. Coartem was first pre-qualified by WHO in 2004 and...