Midala TAS, Timothy SY, Emenike IV
The present study was undertaken in four States of Northern Nigeria to assess the quality of chloroquine tablets available at registered and unregistered drug outlets of government and private health facilities. Standard methods were employed to assess the following parameters of quality control; friability state of chloroquine tablets, hardness and uniformity of weight. In addition, physical examination of the tablets including colour, odour and whether the tablets are scored or inscribed were determined. A total of 146 samples were collected which gave a breakdown of 35, 37, 52 and 22 for States A, B, C and D respectively. State A seemed to have performed best in respect of friability state, followed by States D, B and C in that order. As for odour, only some samples from states B and C had an irritating smell, the other states had samples that were either odourless or had a faint characteristic smell. On the whole, samples were either white or yellow in colour, except in States B and D where whitish brown and green tablets respectively, were recorded. The packaging in all the states was of acceptable standards except for one sample in state A that bore a photocopied label on the container. Of the four states, only state A had a mean friability value below 1%D. Tablets sampled from all states showed consistency in tablet hardness and weights with an average tablet weight falling within the standard range of 0-10% deviations. The 146 samples contained active chloroquine with only one sample each of states A and D contained the sulphate salt, while the remaining 144 (98.63%) samples contained the phosphate salt. The results of this study showed correlation between the quality of chloroquine tablets in Northern Nigeria and their routes of supply. The poor quality of chloroquine preparations may be considered as a factor
which contributed to the emergence of chloroquine resistant Plasmodium falciparum in Nigeria.
