Malaria self medications and choices of drugs for its treatment among residents of a malaria endemic community in West Africa

Objective: To assess people ’s knowledge about malaria treatment which is one of the main\udcomponents of the roll back malaria (RBM) programme instituted on the African Continent with\udthe aim of bringing the disease under control. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried\udout between October and December 2009, involving 3 171 adult women who were selected from\udhouseholds using systematic sampling methods. Quantitative information such as age, educational\udlevel, marital status, occupation, number of children and knowledge of malaria were obtained\udusing structured and semi-structured questionnaires, while qualitative information was obtained\udusing focussed and in-depth group discussions to complement quantitative data. Results: The\udmodes of approach to malaria treatment were 41.1% (1 302), 36.0% (1 143), 10.7% (339) and 0.5% (15)\udwould attend hospital/clinic, buy drugs from pharmacy/chemist shop, take traditional herbs, and\udtake no action respectively. Factors that were found to increase the level of knowledge about\udantimalarial drugs among the respondents were increasing educational level, being married\udcompared to singles, having children and increasing family income (P< 0.05), while occupation\udand age differences had no contributory factors (P> 0.05). Knowledge about artemisinin combined\udtherapy (ACT) was less than 15% similar with intermittent preventive treatment (IPT); home-based\udmanagement for malaria (HBMM) was not in place. Conclusions: The drug component of the RBM\udprogramme in the community should be reviewed and appropriate amends instituted in order to\udensure efficiency of the overall malaria control programme in the community