Drug interactions in primary health care in the George subdistrict, South Africa: a cross-sectional study

healthcare system.In a study in that country, 94.3% of prescriptions had one or more inappropriate ratings in terms of the Medication Appropriate Index, 5 while only 0.7% of these were due to potential drug-drug interactions occurring. 5Earlier studies found that four per cent of hospital admissions were due to drug-drug interactions 6 and a 12% prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions in primary health care. 4In contrast, a study of prescriptions issued to patients over 50 years of age in family medicine clinics in Mexico City revealed that 80% of scripts contained one or more potential drug-drug interactions and 3.8% had contraindicated drug combinations. 3e only South African study listed in PubMed deals with potential drug-drug interactions and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs in a medical-aid database. 2Of 43 482 prescriptions analysed, 18 035