Work on quinine suppository has been on for so many years. Preliminary studies on the quinine suppository in rabbits indicated that it had antimalarial properties. However, the bioavailability is low. At the moment, one of our investigators is currently working in the USA on increasing its bioavailability to get an optimum product that will release the necessary level that they need. This will then be followed by more clinical trials.

Given that the drug–drug interaction occurs at the absorption level, such problem is ruled out when it is given in the injection form. Also, the time of their administration can be separated by between two to three hours to ensure the full benefits of the two drugs are assessed.

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Most allergic reactions occur within hours to two weeks after taking the medication and most people react to medications to which they have been exposed to in the past. This process is called “sensitisation.” However, rashes may develop up to six weeks after starting certain types of medications. Rarely, blisters and bleeding inside the skin or the inner surfaces of the intestines may occur. Unfortunately, if it is the life threatening anaphylaxis, it could be fatal. So, it is important to educate people about these possible reactions to drugs.

Pharm D means Doctor of Pharmacy. Pharm D programme globally is a curriculum that was developed to make the pharmacy profession more patient-oriented. All along, the pharmacy curriculum in Nigeria was more products-oriented. But there is more to the role of pharmacists than handing over medicines to patients.

The second study was on hypersensitivity of sulpha drugs in healthy people and people living with HIV. About 15 per cent from our survey reported various types of reaction to sulpha drugs. However, a breakdown of the data showed that hypersensitivity of sulpha drugs in people living with HIV was far higher.

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Also, the rate at which the body is able to breakdown a drug could be genetic modified. So, it is possible based on a person’s genetic makeup to predict those that may react to some drugs. This makes some people’s reaction to particular drugs genetically.

All I can say is that I worked hard and as I was working hard, the titles kept coming. I became the first female pharmacy professor in UI when I was the director of General Studies and that was a whole lot of responsibilities because I was in charge of all the students, both regular and distant learning.

This is called adverse drug reaction and it could occur with the intake of many drugs because no drug is 100 per cent safe. A particular one is the hypersensitivity to sulpha-containing drugs. It also occurs with drugs that contain amino compounds

There are a lot of opportunities for women; the world is focusing on women. So, by now, I do not expect any woman or young girl to complain of not being given an opportunity because there are a lot of opportunities out there for all young girls and women in the world as we speak; all we need to do is to find opportunities and grab them.

Also, one of my children also reacted to septrin syrup as a baby. At two years, when he was given Fansidar, an antimalarial drug that also contains Sulphur, he almost died. Because the tongue was red and the inside of the mouth was red, they suspected measles. Unfortunately, nobody suspected a reaction until much later that a consultant paediatrician doctor linked his condition with Stevens – Johnson syndrome. Based on this experience, I started a study on pharmaco-genetics, which entail looking at how gene can help predict a person’s reaction to a particular drug.

They should be able to clack the patient like a doctor to know medicines taken, how they are feeling, any need to change their medicine or dosage regime and so on. This is about individualised medicine. Nobody should die of drug reaction, if things work as they should. Handling over medicines, a pharmacy technician can do that. But information the patient needs about the drug should be provided by the pharmacist.

Practice of combining antibiotic with anti-malarials is very common in Nigeria, are there possibilities of such a practice affecting the effectiveness of these drugs? From studies carried out many common antimalarials reduce the effectiveness of common antibiotics, thus promoting resistance in disease-causing germs to these antibiotics.