BackgroundDespite the complexity of drug use, a number of indicators have been developed, standardized and evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO). These indicators are grouped in to three categories namely: prescribing indicators, patient care indicators and facility indicators. The study was aimed to evaluate rational drug use based on WHO-core drug use indicators in Dilchora referral hospital, Dire Dawa; Hiwot Fana specialized university hospital, Harar and Karamara general hospital, Jigjiga, eastern Ethiopia.MethodsHospital based quantitative cross sectional study design was employed to evaluate rational drug use based on WHO core drug use indicators in selected hospitals. Systematic random sampling for prescribing indicators and convenient sampling for patient care indicators was employed. Taking WHO recommendations in to account, a total of 1,500 prescription papers (500 from each hospitals) were investigated. In each hospital, 200 outpatient attendants and 30 key essential drugs were also selected using the WHO recommendation. Data were collected using retrospective and prospective structured observational check list. Data were entered to EPI Data Version 3.1, exported and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Besides, the data were evaluated as per the WHO guidelines. Statistical significance was determined by one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for some variables. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Finally, tabular presentation was used to present the data.ResultsMean, 2.34 (±1.08) drugs were prescribed in the selected hospitals. Prescriptions containing antibiotics and that of injectables were 57.87 and 10.9% respectively. The average consultation and dispensing time were 276.5 s and 61.12 s respectively. Besides, 75.77% of the prescribed drugs were actually dispensed. Only 3.3% of prescriptions were adequately labeled and 75.7% patients know about the dosage of the prescription. Not more than, 20(66.7%) key drugs were available in stock while only 19(63.3%) of key drugs had adequate labeling. On average, selected key drugs were out of stock for 30 days per year. All of the hospitals included in the study used the national drug list, formulary and standard treatment guidelines but none of them had their own drug list or guideline.ConclusionMajority of WHO stated core drug use indicators were not met by the three hospitals included in the study.

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Aim: The present research work was aimed to formulate fast disintegrating tablets (FDTs) of salbutamol sulphate (SBS) using a combination of superdisintegrant and subliming agent, optimize the formulation and evaluate the in vitro performance of the developed FDTs. Materials and Methods: A formulation of SBS FDT was developed using a combination of superdisintegrant – crospovidone and subliming agent – ammonium bicarbonate (AB) in which formulation variables, namely levels of crospovidone and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC):Mannitol (MNTL) ratio were evaluated for their effects on the response variables - disintegration time, hardness, friability and wetting time of the resulting FDTs. By employing a central composite design (CCD) methodology, the FDTs were optimized to achieve optimum levels of the formulation factors. Results: The desired optimum condition was obtained at 7.82% crospovidone and 70% of 1.56:1 MCC: MNTL ratio while maintaining AB at 5% level for aesthetic reasons. Under the optimized conditions, the disintegration time, hardness, friability and wetting time were 14.57±0.53 sec, 7.17±0.82 kg/cm2, 0.311% and 13.14±0.69 sec, respectively. The experimentally observed responses were found to be in close agreement with the predicted values for the optimized formulation. Moreover, the validity of the obtained optimal point was confirmed by the low magnitude of percent prediction error (<5%). Conclusion: FDTs of SBS were successfully formulated and optimized using CCD employing a combination of superdisintegrant and subliming agents.

Boullawas purchased from the local Enset cultivating farmers in Durame, KambataTembaro Zone, South Nations Nationalities People Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia and cassava tubers were obtained from local cassava cultivating farmers in Sawula,

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are needle-like potential carriers of bioactive including drug, genes and proteins. This review considers several techniques that have been developed for fabricating, purifying and functionalizing CNT structures. Commonly, three techniques are being used for producing CNTs: the carbon arc-discharge technique; the laser-ablation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Carbon nanotube usually contains a large amount of impurities such as metal particles, amorphous carbon, and multishells. So purification is needed before attachment of drugs onto CNTs. Depending on technique of their synthesis and types of nano tubes, there are many different methods and procedure for purification. Almost all purification procedures have the following main steps: deletion of large graphite particles and aggregations with filtration, dissolution in appropriate solvents to eliminate catalyst particles (concentrated acids as solvent) and fullerenes (use of organic solvents), and microfiltration and chromatography to size separation and remove the amorphous carbon clusters. Generally there are two methods of carbon nanotube purifications these are chemical method and physical methods. Raw carbon nanotubes have highly hydrophobic surfaces, and are not soluble in aqueous solutions. For medical applications, surface chemistry modifications or functionalization is required to solubilize CNTs in aqueous solvent, improve biocompatibility and to decrease the toxicity of CNTs to the normal cells.

Background: Acne vulgaris (commonly called acne) is the most prevalent skin complication of different causes with a higher prevalence in adolescents. Topical administration is used as first-choice therapy in mild acne, whereas for moderate and severe acne, systemic administration is required in addition to topical therapy. Mechanisms by which treatments act are: normalizing shedding into the pore to prevent obstruction, destruction of P.acnes, suppression of inflammation, and hormonal management. Objective: This review focuses on the novel drug delivery systems displaying a strong ground for topical treatment of acne in order to enhance the therapeutic performance of the topical antiacne agents with improved patience compliance and a concomitant reduction in the side effects. Method: This literature review was obtained from electronic search on Pubmed, Google Scholars, Researchgate, Scimago, CABI, DOAJ, CiteFactor, GLOBAL HEALTH, Universal Impact Factor, Hinari among many others and also search was conducted on individual journals and manuals. Conclusion: Amongst various novel drug delivery systems, vesicular carriers like liposomes and niosomes, micro sponges, microemulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, hydrogels, emulsifier-free formulations, fullerenes and aerosol foams have been reported as novel topical administration of antiacne drugs. Liposomes have been extensively explored and their ability to optimize and improve topical therapy has been proved by several clinical trials. Microemulsions, microsponges, solid lipid nanoparticles and hydrogels also exhibit a tremendous potential for commercialization.

Objective: Present study is aimed at assessing the supply chain management (SCM) of drugs in selected public health facilities in Dire Dawa City Administration, Harari Region and Jigjiga Zone in Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select the public health facilities from each of the corresponding study areas. Quantitative data were collected using both retrospective and prospective structured observational checklist and structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using EPI INFO Version 3.5.1 and SPSS version 16.0. Results: A total of 384 HIV/AIDS patients (47.9% males and 52.1% females) were included in the study from three hospitals and seven health centers with mean age of 32.8 years (SD ± 11.9 years). Ninety percent of the health facilities dispensed the ARV drugs to patients when they came for resupply within 1-3 months. Only thirty percent of the health facilities had received all the ordered quantities of ARV drugs. Zidovudine/ Lamivudine/Nevirapine, Tenofovir/Lamivudine/Efavirenz and Zidovudine/ Lamivudine/Efavirenz combinations were the most commonly prescribed ARV regimens with 31.9%, 19.8% and 15.1%, respectively. Patients who used substances such as khat, cigarette and alcohol along with the ARV drugs were 4.6 times more likely to miss their proper daily dose usage as compared to those who did not use (AOR = 4.619 [95% CI: 2.069-10.313]). Conclusions: The patients should adhere to the right dose at the right time but the health facilities sometimes received not all the quantities of ARV drugs that they have ordered. Zidovudine containing ARV regimen was the most commonly prescribed regimen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

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