Allergy Drugs in Nigeria

Every harmattan, the dust arrives and half the country starts sneezing. Nigeria's allergy shelf splits into two generations: the old sedating antihistamines — chlorpheniramine (Piriton), promethazine (Phenergan) — which work but put you to sleep, and the newer non-drowsy pair, loratadine (Claritin) and cetirizine (Zyrtec), which let you take an allergy tablet in the morning and still function at work. Cyproheptadine sits oddly in this family: an antihistamine by chemistry, but sold in Nigeria overwhelmingly as an appetite stimulant.

For day-to-day allergies the non-drowsy options are usually the better buy, and they cost only a little more as generics. Piriton still earns its place at night, when its drowsiness becomes a feature. What no antihistamine can do is treat a severe reaction with facial swelling or breathing difficulty — that is an emergency injection at a hospital, not a tablet at home.