Nigeria based news publishing house, Punch Newspapers, has created a website that seeks to dissuade Nigerian from self-medication and direct them on where to get original malaria drugs.
This sure comes in handy considering the report by the World Health Organization that malaria led to an estimated 627,000 deaths worldwide in 2012, with 564300 (90%) being from sub-Saharan Africa.
The website by Punch Newspapers is divided in three sections. The first section contains stories dealing with people’s negative experiences with self-medication, another section lists pharmacies where you can purchase original drugs, while the last section provides you with the opportunity to share your experience with the use of either expired or fake drugs.
The reason for the creation of this website can be deciphered from a post on the website which indicates that, “Malaria has remained a major cause of death in Nigeria, worsened by the increasing instances of self-medication. Nigerians regularly place themselves on malaria medication but often find they get worse rather than better because the medicines are expired, fake or wrong”.
Besides reading and also sharing your experience with fake of expired drugs. You can also locate the nearest pharmacy where you can get original malaria drugs by clicking on the “Pharmacy Locator”. The Pharmacy Locator makes use of a geolocation API which in turn streamlines the result to pharmacies close to you.
Another media house, Big Cabal Media has also done something similar with the Ebolafacts.com which seeks to sensitize the public on the Ebola Virus.
You can visit the malaria sensitization website by Punch Newspaper here.
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