Disparities exist in the availability of outpatient malaria treatment in Maryland, USA

Journal of Travel Medicine
Kelly A BearPatrick W Hickey

Abstract

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. 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. 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 "pull...Continue Reading

References

Jun 17, 2004·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Nina BacanerJay S Keystone
Oct 7, 2004·Annals of Internal Medicine·Robert D NewmanRichard W Steketee
Oct 16, 2004·Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·Karin LederJoseph Torresi
Jan 5, 2005·Annals of Internal Medicine·Sonia Y Angell, Martin S Cetron
Oct 18, 2005·Journal of Immigrant Health·L Leonard, M VanLandingham
Oct 10, 2006·Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·Karin LederUNKNOWN GeoSentinel Surveillance Network
Dec 22, 2006·The Medical Journal of Australia·Desmond T ChihRonan J Murray
Jul 3, 2007·Archives of Disease in Childhood·Sarah Cherian, David Burgner
Nov 14, 2008·Journal of Travel Medicine·Guido CalleriPietro Caramello
Nov 14, 2008·Journal of Travel Medicine·Peter A Leggat

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Nov 10, 2012·International Journal of Health Geographics·Philippe AmstislavskiJeremy Weedon
May 5, 2011·Journal of Travel Medicine·Patrick W HickeyNalini Singh
Aug 1, 2018·The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene·Elizabeth H LeePatrick W Hickey

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Antimalarial Agents (ASM)

Antimalarial agents, also known as antimalarials, are designed to prevent or cure malaria. Discover the latest research on antimalarial agents here.

Antimalarial Agents

Antimalarial agents, also known as antimalarials, are designed to prevent or cure malaria. Discover the latest research on antimalarial agents here.