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Buying Drugs in Addis Ababa: A Quantitative Analysis

  • Chapter
The Context of Medicines in Developing Countries

Part of the book series: Culture, Illness, and Healing ((CIHE,volume 12))

Abstract

Since the Ethiopian revolution in 1974 some pharmacies in Addis Ababa and most drug importers/wholesales have been nationalized as part of restructuring the national health care system under the principles of centralized planning and socialism.2 In addition to price control, there has been a curtailment of the types of drugs private retailers can sell and a prohibition on treating clients in retail shops. The remaining private pharmacies and druggist shops are to be nationalized with further extension of government control over the private sector of the economy. In 1984 we examined the utilization of private and government pharmacies in Addis Ababa by different socioeconomic groups. We found a distinct preference for government retailers, largely due to their lower drug prices and larger inventories. Due to the usual limitations of pharmacy based studies, particularly sampling bias, we recommended that population based studies of drug retailing and utilization be carried out (Kloos et al. 1986a, 1986b). The present paper is based on integrated household surveys in four kebele (urban dwellers’ associations) and additional pharmacy based studies in December 1984 and April/May 1985. The objective of this study is to examine relationships between disease prevalence, disease perception, decision making in drug selection and geographic and socioeconomic accessibility of retailers in drug purchasing in Addis Ababa.

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Authors
  1. Helmut Kloos
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  2. Berhanu Getahun
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  3. Asregid Teferi
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  4. Kefalo Gebre Tsadik
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  5. Solomon Belay
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Antropologisch-Sociologisch Centrum, University of Amsterdam, Oude Zijds Achterburgwal 185, 1012 DK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sjaak van der Geest

  2. Institut for Etnologi og Antropologi, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksholms Kanal 4, 1220, Copenhagen K., Denmark

    Susan Reynolds Whyte

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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Kloos, H., Getahun, B., Teferi, A., Tsadik, K.G., Belay, S. (1988). Buying Drugs in Addis Ababa: A Quantitative Analysis. In: van der Geest, S., Whyte, S.R. (eds) The Context of Medicines in Developing Countries. Culture, Illness, and Healing, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2713-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2713-1_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7722-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2713-1

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