Experiences after coadministration of anthelminthic and SMC drugs.
drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, fever
DISEASES
Overall, most parents/caregivers interviewed appreciated the way the administration of the antimalarial and anthelminthic medications had taken place. The parents reported that the children took all the doses of the medications and that some children experienced some mild effects such as mild fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and drowsiness. The parents stated that the information provided by the study team during community sensitizations allayed their fears about the combined medications, and any possible side effects. According to them, in most cases, the side effects did not last more than a day.I am happy, I also had strong confidence that my child will be protected from these diseases. But there were side effects as the child slept all day after taking the medicine, he also had mild fever but these side effects don’t last long, and that’s normal too.How long did they last? Only 24 hours, now he is fine.Why do you say side effects are normal? It’s normal because the drugs are not the same if each one does its job, the child must feel it in his body. Yes, I noticed that one of my children had mild diarrhea, otherwise they remain calm all day, it even looks like they are sick. But the side effects did not last long, now they are doing very well. And they gave out a health book telling us that if our kids get sick after the child took the medications, you take them to the health center with the book. They told us that if you go to the hospital, you’re not going to pay anything for the drugs, it’s them who will pay for the drugs. There was consistency in the views expressed by the parents, healthcare providers, and trial staff that the refreshments (snacks and glucose drinks) provided to the children before administering the medications were effective tools because they helped facilitate children’s uptake of the drugs. Some caregivers noted that children who usually disliked taking drugs quickly cooperated when they saw the snacks. The trial staff who administered the drugs reported that the first day, when they distributed the drinks and snacks, was the day when their work was in administering the drugs was the least challenging.It’s really the biscuits and drinks that made the job easier and even the children who didn’t take the medication asked their parents why they didn’t receive it like their siblings who took it. That’s really what made the job easier. I will rather talk about what made the job easier. That is, the cookies on the days that we took with us, it made the job a lot easier. When the children saw that their siblings were taking the medicine and then received biscuits, they too came to take it”. Some healthcare providers emphasized that the initial objective of giving out snacks to the children was to prevent them from taking the drugs on an empty stomach, which could accentuate the side effects. However, the healthcare providers realized that the snack distribution was a major factor that facilitated the acceptability of the drugs by many children.The goal was for the children to be able to have something in the stomach before taking the medicine. But we found it to be a motivator for some who saw these snacks even though it was not included in the study, there were children who wanted to be given the drug just to get the snacks and drinks. A small number of parents complained that the size and bitter taste of some of the drugs made many children reluctant to take them. To overcome this challenge, they reported that crushing the drugs in mortars and adding sugar to them, as done in the study, reduced the pill burden and made the drugs easier for the children to swallow.As soon as the health workers came to our household, I gathered the children concerned and I saw the health workers were grinding the drugs in a small mortal and giving them to the children. This made it easier for the children to take medicine in addition to the snacks given to the children, this motivates the children to take because they have taken the juices and the snacks. 