Ezebilo, Eugene Ejike
- Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Objective To examine the medicines and dosage that mothers who engage in home-based malaria management administer to children aged ≤ 5 years having signs and symptoms associated with malaria and to discuss the possibilities of designing an effective home-based malaria management strategy. Methods The data were obtained from face-to-face semi-structured interviews conducted with mothers in the Ugbowo Community of Benin City, Nigeria who were selected using multi-stage systematic random sampling technique. The data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis, arithmetic mean, simple percentages and bar chart. Results Approximately 90% of the interviewees engaged in home-based malaria management and 10% patronized the hospital. Most of the interviewees who engaged in home-based malaria management administered medicines that stimulates the production of red blood cells and supplies vitamins to children having signs and symptoms of malaria, followed by painkillers and anti-malaria and cough medicine was the least. Of the anti-malaria medicines administered to children, almost 80% of the interviewees administered chloroquine to children, 15% quinine and 3% halfan. Approximately 60% of the interviewees had the correct knowledge of the dosage regime for chloroquine, 38% for quinine and 9% for halfan. Conclusions Although home-based malaria management is important, it cannot serve as a substitute to the hospital. Some diseases have signs and symptoms that are similar to that of malaria which implies that administering anti-malaria medicines to a child without confirmatory tests might lead to irredeemable complications in that child. If the strategy is to make home-based malaria management effective and sustainable mothers, community health officials should be involved in designing the strategy. Simple rapid diagnostic test kits for malaria should be made available to community health officials and pharmacists so that confirmatory tests could be carried out before dispensing medicines.
Keywords
Anti-malaria medicines; indigenous knowledge; malaria management; mothers; paediatrics
Published in
Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease
2015, volume: 5, number: 7, pages: 532-538
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
SDG3 Good health and well-being
UKÄ Subject classification
Epidemiology
Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2222-1808(15)60831-3
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/71511