Prevalence of Malaria and its influencing factors in Awassa District, Southern Ethiopia
Creators: name: Alemu, Getachew
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2006

description: Malaria is a leading public health problem in Ethiopia where an estimated 68% of the population lives in malarious areas. In 2005, malaria has been reported as the first leading cause of morbidity &amp; mortality accounting for 48% of out patient consultation, 20% admissions and 24.9% inpatient deaths. It has also been documented in the nationwide child survival study that malaria affected school attendance by 20% and contributes to 47% of the child deaths in Ethiopia. Knowledge on local malaria situations is an important step in planning intervention and control activities since the transmission dynamics and determinants differ from place to place and in time. In the study area there is scarcity of community based studies which could provide recent information on the epidemiology of malaria for planning and implementation of effective prevention and control activities. A cross sectional study was carried out in Bushulo, Awassa District ,Sidama Zone, SNNPR from February 2006 to May 2006 with the objective to estimate prevalence of malaria and Factors influencing it. A total of 487 children and 200 households were studied from four rural localities selected by simple random sampling and using proportional to size allocation to each locality. The response rate was 98.2%. Household and clinical data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and a format was used for laboratory data. Blood samples were taken with aseptic technique from 487children 2 -9 years of age for microscopy. viii Results of the study revealed that malaria parasite rate was 3.9% (95% CI: 2.4-6.1) where as fever rate and spleen rates were 9% (95% CI: 6.7-12) and 10.9% (95%CI: 8.3-14) respectively. Household ITNs prevalence was 39%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to identify risk factors and the result revealed that family size 5 (p value&lt;0.05), child's age 2-5 years (p value&lt;0.05) and residing in houses with corrugated Iron sheet roofs (p value &lt;0.05) were found to be associated with higher risk of getting malaria (parasite rate). Residing in a locality called "Finchawa" (p value&lt;0.05) and distance of settlement within less than 1km from Lake shore of Awassa (p value&lt;0.01) were associated with a higher risk of malaria (spleen rate). As the proportion of partially immune population is very low in hypoendemic areas, these localities are prone to waves of epidemics. In areas where the option of environmental manipulations may be difficult especially after the major rainy season, it is advisable to apply indoor residual spraying up to a distance of 1km to effectively use scarce resources and minimize environmental contamination. Awareness creation for the proper use of ITNs and community mobilization is needed for environmental manipulation where possible. Prompt diagnosis and effective treatment, as well as, where environmental manipulations are difficult as in communities residing near Lake Awassa, Indoor residual spraying is advised to be applied prior to the rainy season to prevent and control epidemic outbreaks.