TANZANIA NATIONAL FORMULARY (TNF 2nd Edition)

Introduction
The Tanzania National Formulary (TNF) is published by the Ministry of Health through the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA). It aims at providing up-to-date, unbiased and evidence-based drug information which will promote safe, rational and effective use of drugs in the community.

The first edition of TNF was published in 1998. Since then great strides have been made in medicine and pharmacy such as emergency of new diseases, changes of treatment guidelines and occurrence of resistant microbes. These changes led to the development of new products and discovery of new adverse reactions and interactions. Therefore it has become necessary to revise and update the information of the TNF.

The second edition of TNF was published in 2005. Among many changes in this edition, it features new policy guidelines for treatment of malaria, management of HIV infection using Anti-Retroviral Drugs and entries of other drugs including new chapters on drugs for genitourinary disorders and diagnostics. New appendices on drugs use in hepatic and renal impairment had been added. Furthermore, drugs found to be associated with frequent adverse reactions and which had been withdrawn from the market, were omitted.

How To Use Tanzania National Formulary
The Tanzania National Formulary is divided into the following sections:

1. Guidelines on prescribing: Prescribers are given general information on how to prescribe drugs.
2. Guidelines on dispensing:  Information on how to dispense drugs, including controlled drugs is provided in this section.
3. Guidelines on the monitoring of adverse drug reactions:  This gives general guidelines on the types of adverse reactions to be reported and how to report.
4. Information on drugs:  Drug monographs in each chapter are arranged alphabetically and contain the following subtitles:
   1. Indications:  This contains the main indications for the drug. 
   2. Dose:  The doses shown are intended for general guidance only.  Factors such as the severity of the disease state and the patients’ renal or hepatic function may change the dose.
   3. Precautions:  These are intended to caution the prescriber to reduce the dose or increase interval between doses or choose another drug according to the patient’s condition and monitoring measures to make when the patients is using this drugs
   4. Contraindications:  These are intended to warn the prescriber that usage of the drug may bring harm to the patient.
   5. Adverse effects:  These are intended to guide the prescriber on what to expect when a drug is used.  The list is not comprehensive and new ones may be encountered which should be reported to TADATIS immediately.
   6. Overdosage:  An outline on how to manage drug overdosage is provided.
   7. Storage:  This has been included on drugs needing special storage conditions; otherwise all drugs should be stored at temperatures between 15-300C.
   8. Preparations:  Preparations are written under their generic names.  Letters A or B or C or D are written beside the preparation.  This denotes the level the drug is prescribable as follows;-
      

      A = dispensary
      B = health centre
      C = District and Sub-district level
      D = Regional and referral hospitals
      * Preparations without letters are not in the National Essential Drug List (NEDLIT)

5. Appendices: The appendices give information on drug interactions, drugs and pregnancy, drugs and breast-feeding, drug use in renal and liver diseases and ADR reporting form.
6. Index:  Drugs have been listed in alphabetical order.