First steps towards interprofessional health practice in Tanzania: an educational experiment in rural Bagamoyo district.

Health workers in Tanzania struggle to provide adequate health care for populations with high maternal, neonatal, and child mortality and high prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases. There are longstanding shortages of staff and resources. Universities are training more health professionals and revising curricula to be sure that staff have the specific skills needed to work in rural districts.

"Practical knowledge" and perceptions of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance among drugsellers in Tanzanian private drugstores.

Background: Studies indicate that antibiotics are sold against regulation and without prescription in private drugstores in rural Tanzania. The objective of the study was to explore and describe antibiotics sale and dispensing practices and link it to drugseller knowledge and perceptions of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance.

Methods: Exit customers of private drugstores in eight districts were interviewed about the drugstore encounter and drugs bought.

STI management in Tanzanian private drugstores: practices and roles of drug sellers.

Objectives: To describe the role and possible contribution of private drugstores in sexually transmitted infection (STI) management in rural Tanzania.

Methods: A cross-sectional study that included drug sellers in private drugstores in eight districts of Tanzania. Data collected through interviews with drug sellers and the simulated client method presenting a male and female STI case.

Consumer survey of malaria fact card: an educational and communication tool in Tanzania.

Objective: To determine the usefulness of the malaria fact card as a health educational and communication tool in Dar Es Salaam.

Methods: A prospective consumer survey pilot study on the malaria fact card, a health educational and communication tool was carried out between January and February 2004 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Parameters studied include consumers' understanding of the malaria fact card, consumer behavioural responses and awareness of malaria prevention and treatment.

Colonic drug targeting.

Specific targeting of drugs to the colon is recognized to have several therapeutic advantages. Drugs which are destroyed by the stomach acid and/or metabolized by pancreatic enzymes are slightly affected in the colon, and sustained colonic release of drugs can be useful in the treatment of nocturnal asthma, angina and arthritis. Treatment of colonic diseases such as ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer and Crohn's disease is more effective with direct delivery of drugs to the affected area.