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Disparities Exist in the Availability of Outpatient Malaria Treatment in Maryland, USA
- Source :
- Journal of Travel Medicine. 17:228-232
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2010.
-
Abstract
- Background. Prior review of pediatric malaria cases in the Washington, DC area raised concern that there may be systematic barriers to the timely procurement of antimalarial medications for those patients being treated for malaria as outpatients. We hypothesized that the local availability of antimalarial medications was not consistent across communities of differing socioeconomic status. Methods. We administered a blinded telephone questionnaire to pharmacists in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and assessed the in-stock availability of antimalarial medication. Pharmacies were stratified into categories of population risk, disease incidence, and income. Results. Pharmacies in high-income ZIP codes were more likely to stock first-line therapy medications (93%, p = 0.03) than pharmacies in moderate-income, low-incidence, low-risk ZIP codes (50%). Moderate-income ZIP codes with high-malaria incidence and a high-risk population (67%, p = 0.35) were no more likely to stock first-line antimalarial medications than pharmacies in moderate-income, low-incidence, low-risk areas (50%). In all, only four (9%) pharmacies stocked quinine. Many pharmacists stated the reason for this discrepancy was that they believed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had “pulled quinine off the market.” Conclusions. In the United States, disparities exist in the availability of outpatient-antimalarial medications. We recommend that a complete outpatient treatment course is dispensed, or the availability of the medication at the pharmacy that the patient will use is verified prior to departure from the clinic or emergency department. Pharmacists and physicians should be aware that the FDA restrictions on the use of quinine sulfate do not apply to its use for the treatment of malaria.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Pediatrics
Population
Pharmacy
Community Pharmacy Services
Health Services Accessibility
Antimalarials
Pharmacotherapy
Catchment Area, Health
Surveys and Questionnaires
Humans
Medicine
Healthcare Disparities
Hospital pharmacy
education
Socioeconomic status
Pharmacies
education.field_of_study
Maryland
business.industry
Incidence (epidemiology)
General Medicine
Emergency department
medicine.disease
Cross-Sectional Studies
Socioeconomic Factors
Family medicine
business
Malaria
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17088305 and 11951982
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Travel Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e7510b937097f4fea663a78945bf6b40