Introducing Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (MRDTs) at Registered Retail Pharmacies in Ghana: Practitioners’ Perspective

Aims: In much of Africa, Ghana inclusive, malaria has traditionally been diagnosed and treated presumptively: any patient with fever was presumed to have malaria and treated with antimalarial drugs. In this study, the retail pharmacies practitioners’ perspectives on the implementation of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests was sought and decisions analyzed in themes, using Realist Conceptual Approach. Study Design: Cross-sectional quantitative and purposive study. Place and Duration of Study: Registered private pharmacies in Ashanti Region of Ghana, between September and November, 2013. Original Research Article British Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 4(8): 943-953, 2014 944 Methodology: A structured pre-tested questionnaires (in non-study area) was selfadministered to 99 practitioners in retail pharmacies to generated information on Practitioner’s characteristics, knowledge and experience on the MRDT kits, acceptance and willingness to use the test kits and challenge towards the use of the kit, for the thematic analysis. Results: Practitioners within the age bracket of 30-40 years were highest (43%) and male representation was 67%. Pharmacists were 67% of practitioners and 17.1% had postgraduate qualification. 96.03% had ample knowledge of test kit and 0.99% use it always and logistic regression indicated no significance (Chi-square=0.751; LR=0.540 at p<0.05). Of the patients, 47.52% strongly agree to implement and 48.51 agree. 60.39% were definite to suggest to colleague and logistic regression indicated significant relation (Chi-square=0.000; LR=0.006 at p<0.05). 44.4% were very satisfied with presumptive diagnosis while 1% very dissatisfied. Conclusion: The findings indicated willingness to implement the policy but presumptive diagnosis is still the practice. The evidence provides an opportunity to adapt a conceptual framework leading to the uptake of the policy.