March 2016

Optimizing community effectiveness of antimalarial drugs in malaria-endemic areas of Africa: Issues, challenges, and proposed actions

Malaria remains a disease of public health concern, which is associated with high mortality and morbidity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This picture is mainly due to low effectiveness of antimalarials at the community level, a scenario caused by different factors related to the availability, quality, and efficacy of antimalarials as well as the degree of the patients’ and providers’ adherence to...

Author(s): A. Chika and S. O. Bello

March 2016

Supercritical fluid and pharmaceutical applications. Part I: Process classification

The supercritical fluid technology has been target of many pharmaceuticals investigations in particles production for almost 35 years. This is due to the great advantages it offers over others technologies currently used for the same purpose. A brief history is presented, as well the classification of supercritical technology based on the role that the supercritical fluid (carbon dioxide) performs in the...

Author(s): Valquíria Miwa HanaiYoshida, Victor Manuel Cardoso Figueiredo Balcão, Marta Maria Duarte Carvalho Vila, José Martins Oliveira Júnior, Norberto Aranha, Maria Palmira Daflon Gremião and Marco Vinícius Chaud

March 2016

Did drug availability in Malawian central hospitals improve after the conversion of central medical stores to a trust?

Malawian public hospitals have reportedly been experiencing a lot of shortages in medicines and medical supplies in recent years. This was at least in part, attributed to the traditional placement of the drug supply system under the Ministry of Health, and therefore a change in the organizational set-up was implemented in 2011. This study aimed at finding out if the availability of medicines in central hospitals in...

Author(s): Felix Khuluza, Precious Kadammanja, Collins Simango and Mirriam Mukhuna