Application of drug sale surveillance system in rural areas

Objective To study the feasibility to establish a drug sale surveillance system in rural areas.Methods Totally 23 pharmacies were sampled in two rural counties in Hubei province with stratified and purposively sampling strategy.Ninety-eight drugs for cold,fever,cough,diarrhea,and inflammation were monitored from April 1,2012.The daily sale data of selected drugs in pharmacies were reported to a web-based surveillance system.Missing report rate,zero report rate,incidence report rate,and timely report rate were calculated to evaluate the quality of reported data.Results Totally 288 835 packages of drugs were registered by the system during the period.Compound cold medicine,cough suppressants,and antibiotics were three main categories registered in the system.The total missing report rate,zero report rate,incidence report rate,and timely report rate was 1.48%,2.12%,96.40%,and 86.42%,respectively.Conclusion The quality of data reported was reliable.It was possible to establish a drug sale surveillance system in rural areas for early warning of infectious disease.This study could give suggestions and evidence for developing drug sale surveillance system in other countries or areas in the same settings.