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Abstract

Background: In Cameroon, malaria is a serious public health problem accounting for 40-45% of medical consultations, 57% of hospitalization days and 40% of mortality among children below 5 years.

Objective: To understand how people recognize malaria, its cause and prevention including identification of personal modifiable risky behaviours that are important in planning approaches for its prevention and control.

Methods: A structured questionnaire on malaria determinants was administered to inhabitants of a malaria endemic setting in a cross-sectional study.

Result: Majority (97.64%) of the respondents knew at least a symptom of malaria. Symptoms  such as “nyor yayan”, “mbeb kansi” “tu-lu”, “chirr” “mngan yayan” corresponding respectively to fever, chills, headache, vomiting and joint pains agree with the description of orthodox medicine. The commonest (15%) symptom mentioned was headache. The respondents had a rating score of 27.7% for the cause of malaria to be mosquito bites. Some incorrect causes of malaria mentioned included bad whether (9.5%), curse from an elder (7.1%), witchcraft (3.5%), bad food (9.0%), unclean water (5.9%) and drinking alcoholics (2.4%). 60.5% respondents reported practicing a correct preventive measure against malaria. Prominent correct preventive measures included environmental sanitation (21.3%), use of aerosol insecticides (10.3%), mosquito coil (7.9%), chemoprophylaxis (5.9%), mosquito net (1.2%) and traditional medicines (13.8%), as well as incorrect methods such as avoiding the hot early morning sunrays (9.5%). The practice of malaria prevention is related to the educational status of the participants with less educated people practicing it more than educated people.

Conclusion: Proper health education messages on malaria determinants are required to improve upon the understanding of the study population. This could be through the use of non-scientific term messages with the help of village and community health workers. Posters, radio and television could be used.

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Nsagha Dickson, S., & Njamnshi, A. (2013). KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES RELATING TO MALARIA IN A SEMI-URBAN AREA OF CAMEROON. HEALTH SCIENCES AND DISEASE, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.5281/hsd.v11i3.61
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