[Quality control of antibiotics used in Senegal]

To slow the spread of bacterial resistance and promote safety in the use of medicines, development of quality control tools is indispensable. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of several antibiotic agents used in Senegal and to assess the utility of the mini laboratory as a quality control tool. The mini laboratory and all materials necessary for this study were provided by the German Pharma Health Fund. A total of 34 antibiotic samples were submitted to a battery of tests including physical and visual inspection, disintegration, and thin layer chromatography designed for identification and semiquantitative evaluation. Non-conformities detected by physical and visual inspection were found mainly in products from the illicit sector (80%) but some non-conformities were also found in products from licit private sector (20%). Based on thin layer chromatography findings, non-conformities in product identity and dosage involved mainly erythromycin (45%) followed by amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin (22% each). Again this type of non-conformity was most frequent in products from the illicit sector (45%) but it was also observed in products from the private and public sectors (33% and 22% respectively). These findings show that follow-up is necessary to ensure the quality of medicines, especially antibiotics. In this study the mini laboratory was a highly useful quality control tool.