Introduction:

Malaria is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in Angola. Characteristics of adverse reactions due to antimalarials are not well established in hospitalized patients.

Objective:

Characterization of adverse reactions to antimalarial drugs.

Method:

An active pharmacovigilance study was carried out in a series of cases. There was a total of 2 634 patients admitted in central and provincial hospitals of Angola with confirmed malaria during the first semester of 2015. Trained doctors conducted daily screenings through pharmacological questionnaires, visits to the patients and reviews of medical records.

Results:

It was found that there was a rate of 7.5 adverse reactions per 100 hospitalized patients. 77.8 % were adults and 15.7 % were children. There was a predominance of females in children and adults (51.6 % and 52.6 %, respectively). The most commonly reported reactions were nausea and vomiting (14.3 %), abdominal pain (13.4 %) and rash and tremors both with 11.7 %. Intravenous quinine was the antimalarial with the highest number of reports of adverse reactions (29.0 %). In addition, oral and intravenous quinine caused 41.1 % of the total number of ADRs found. Mild adverse reactions (73.2 %), probable adverse reactions (47.6 %) and frequent adverse reactions (69.7 %) were predominant.

Conclusions:

Data provided by the study show the existence of adverse reactions to antimalarial treatments in central and provincial hospitals in Angola. It is highlighted the importance of an active surveillance in the identification and reporting of adverse effects due to drugs in scenarios with a pharmacovigilance system that does not reach an effective implementation.

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