Abstract

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MALARIA CONTROL STRATEGIES AT HOUSEHOLD LEVEL: A SPATIO–TEMPORAL ANALYSIS

Cecilia K Muchepa Muzyamba

Volume: 7 Issue: 4 2017

Abstract:

Malaria is a disease of public health concern in many nations of the world. The parasite and the vector have been a nuisance to human populations. It was for this reason that the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) through the health sector and other cooperating partners introduced various diagnosis and treatment procedures and; malaria prevention strategies. This paper examined the effectiveness of the malaria prevention strategies at household level in Samfya District of Zambia. Random and nonrandom research designs were used to obtain the sample and data for the study. There were 394 respondents, 3 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and 11 key informants. The results showed that 55.8% of the respondents acknowledged that they had heard about the use of Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP – Fansidar) out of which only 9.1% knew that it a prophylactic therapy during pregnancy. Forty-six point two percent (46.2%) pregnant women took the SP as an IPTp. Seventytwo point six percent (72.6%) of the respondents had never had their houses sprayed using the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS). The 27.4% of the respondents who stated that their houses were sprayed, it was through the use of small domestic insecticide spray cans that were purchased from shops. As a result of this, only 0.8% knew that Dichlorodiphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT) was a chemical used in the IRS strategy. The ownership and utilization of ITNs/LLINs was higher in Mwewa than Lubwe (48.6% and 51.4%; and 22.6% and 42.1% respectively). These results indicate that the strategies were not effectively utilized in the control of malaria.

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