The satisfaction with overall quality of pharmaceutical services received by participants was positive. Longer waiting times resulted in lower patient satisfaction. High patient load may be the cause of the long waiting time and the inadequate duration of interaction between pharmacist and the patient.

PurposeThis study assessed the incidence and types of medication errors, interventions and outcomes in patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in selected HIV treatment centres in Nigeria.MethodsOf 69 health facilities that had program for active screening of medication errors, 14 were randomly selected for prospective cohort assessment. All patients who filled/refilled their antiretroviral medications between February 2009 and March 2011 were screened for medication errors using study-specific pharmaceutical care daily worksheet (PCDW). All potential or actual medication errors identified, interventions provided and the outcomes were documented in the PCDW. Interventions included pharmaceutical care in HIV training for pharmacists amongst others. Chi-square was used for inferential statistics and P<0.05 indicated statistical significance.ResultsOf 6,882 participants, 67.0% were female and 93.5% were aged ≥15years old. The participants had 110,070 medications filling/refilling visits, average (±SD) of 16.0 (±0.3) visits per patient over the observation period. Patients were followed up for 9172.5 person-years. The number of drug items dispensed to participants was 305,584, average of 2.8 (±0.1) drug items per patient. The incidence rate of medication errors was 40.5 per 100 person-years. The occurrence of medication errors was not associated with participants’ sex and age (P>0.05). The major medications errors identified were 26.4% incorrect ART regimens prescribed; 19.8% potential drug-drug interaction or contraindication present; and 16.6% duration and/or frequency of medication inappropriate. Interventions provided included 67.1% cases of prescriber contacted to clarify/resolve errors and 14.7% cases of patient counselling and education; 97.4% of potential/actual medication error(s) were resolved.ConclusionThe incidence rate of medication errors was somewhat high; and majority of identified errors were related to prescription of incorrect ART regimens and potential drug-drug interactions; the prescriber was contacted and the errors were resolved in majority of cases. Active screening for medication errors is feasible in resource-limited settings following a capacity building intervention.

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Objective: To measure the prevalence and pattern of distribution of dental caries in suburban Nigerian children attending nursery school in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods: A cross sectional survey of 423 children (225 boys, 198 girls) aged 3-6 years using dmft index. WHO recommendations for oral health survey were used for caries diagnosis (non cavitated lesions were excluded). All examinations were carried out by two calibrated examiners. Result: The prevalence of caries was 10.9% and a mean decayed, missing and filled teeth index (dmft) was 0.3 with the d-component comprising 92%.The mean dmft of children with high social status was higher than children with low social status. No statistically significant differences were found between boys and girls. The pattern of distribution revealed that out of 46 children diagnosed for caries 29 (63%) had caries confined to posterior teeth, 3 (6.5%) had caries only in anterior teeth and in 14(30.4%) both anterior and posterior teeth were affected. Caries free children accounted for 89.1% Discussion: The experience of caries in suburban Nigerian nursery school children found in this study was lower than that reported in most African countries and developed countries. Conclusion: Caries is not a widespread problem in some young suburban Nigerian nursery school children in the population examined. The importance of dental education and oral health programme both curative and preventive measures for this population are important to maintain the WHO / FDI millennium goal in Nigerian children population.

Environments continuously receive mixtures of drugs on a global scale. The most popular uses of drugs include human medicine as tools for the treatment or prevention of various diseases, veterinary drugs or husbandry growth promoters with applications on many different aspects of agriculture. Objectives of this study are to identify the major methods used in PWM in the health facilities in Lagos state, Nigeria and to identify the presence of pharmaceutical in the environment. This study comprised 376 respondents of which 68.4% were females. Most frequent age range was 31-40 years, (42.3%). 43.4% have been in service between 1-5 years. 34% work in general hospitals while 8.0% work in comprehensive health centers. Majority (37.5%) dispose pharmaceutical wastes in medical waste bin. Unused drugs are mostly returned directly to the supplier (40.4%) while expired drugs are mostly returned to manufacturers (41.2%). Most facilities dispose wastes in biohazard bags (red, 19.95%, yellow and black, 19.68%). 0.634ug/L of amoxillin trihydrate was detected in waste water and 6.791ug/g in sludge. 0.203ug/L of Clavlnic acid was present in tap water, 0.264ug/L of Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride was found in waste water and 6.353ug/g in sludge. Diclofenac was 0.409ug/L in wastewater. Paracetamol concentration was 0.00379ug/L in tap water, 0.01196g/L in waste water and 0.55768ug/L in sludge. It is concluded that the presence of pharmaceutical wastes in tap water, waste water and sludge in hospital environments is connected with waste management methods. Awareness and training are necessary to avoid environmental pollution of pharmaceutical wastes.