Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Antimalarial Drugs in Ghana: A Case Study on Personal Preferences

Prince Yeboah
ORCID logo ,
Arnold Donkor Forkuo
ORCID logo ,
Obed Kwabena Offe Amponsah
ORCID logo ,
Nana Ofori Adomako
ORCID logo ,
Ahmad Yaman Abdin
,
Muhammad Jawad Nasim
ORCID logo ,
Pitsch Werner
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Anto Berko Panyin
* ,
Eike Emrich
,
Claus Jacob
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 8 April 2020 / Approved: 10 April 2020 / Online: 20 April 2020 (00:00:00 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 8 April 2020 / Approved: 10 April 2020 / Online: 12 June 2020 (00:00:00 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Yeboah, P.; Forkuo, A.D.; Amponsah, O.K.O.; Adomako, N.O.; Abdin, A.Y.; Nasim, M.J.; Werner, P.; Panyin, A.B.; Emrich, E.; Jacob, C. Antimalarial Drugs in Ghana: A Case Study on Personal Preferences. Sci 2020, 2, 49. Yeboah, P.; Forkuo, A.D.; Amponsah, O.K.O.; Adomako, N.O.; Abdin, A.Y.; Nasim, M.J.; Werner, P.; Panyin, A.B.; Emrich, E.; Jacob, C. Antimalarial Drugs in Ghana: A Case Study on Personal Preferences. Sci 2020, 2, 49.

DOI: 10.3390/sci2030049

Abstract

Malaria is a serious infection affecting millions of people in Africa. Our study investigated the personal preferences and applications of antimalarial medicines in Ghana. Based on over 1000 questionnaires distributed in Ghana from January to May 2019, we noticed that although Western medications to fight this disease are widely available, most patients in Ghana prefer treatment with locally produced herbal remedies. This preference appears to be due to a combination of traditional venues for obtaining medicines “on the street” rather than in licensed pharmacies, trust in local and “green” products, extensive advertisement of such local products, and an inherent distrust of imported and synthetic or unnatural medicines. Going local and natural is a trend also observed in other countries across the globe, and adds to the acceptance or rejection of drugs regardless of their activity or toxicity. In fact, adverse side effects associated with herbal remedies, such as general weakness and swollen, sore mouth, do not seem to deter the respondents of this study in Ghana. We propose a combination of (a) increasing public awareness of the benefits of modern medicine and (b) an improvement and control of the quality of herbal remedies to raise the standard of malaria treatment in countries such as Ghana.

Keywords

adverse drug reactions; antimalarial; Ghana; herbal remedies; malaria; questionnaire; street sale; orthodox; unnatural medicines; patient preference

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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