Abstract:
The study was conducted in 5 randomly selected communities in the Wassa West district in the Western region of Ghana using both qualitative and quantitative methods to obtain mothers or caregiver’s knowledge on symptoms of childhood malaria (uncomplicated and complicated) in children under five years of age in relation to its management. A total of 300 caregivers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Majority of the respondents were mothers constituting 79%. Although the study population was made up of different ethnic groups, the local term used to represent a cluster of symptoms synonymous with the clinical diagnosis of malaria was “ebun" or "fever” which were used interchangeably. All mothers or caregivers named one or more signs by which they recognized the disease. The percentage of mothers or caregivers who perceived symptoms of malaria in small children to be fever was found to be 91%. Fever (hot body), vomiting and loss of appetite were the three most common signs mentioned. Although 89% of mothers or caregivers had access to a health facility, this does not appear to influence their treatment seeking behaviour. This is indicated by the fact that as many as 60% managed their child’s disease at home and used both traditional and modem treatment. The commonest anti-malaria drug was chloroquine. This is a significant finding considering the upsurge of chloroquine resistance, although chloroquine is still currently Ghana’s official first line drug for treating malaria. 74.8% of mothers or caregivers treated children under-5 years with malaria at home for 3 days. Poverty was a major factor that encouraged home treatment as confirmed by the fact that
55% of them treated their ill children at home because they had no money to send the child to hospital. The delay in seeking early appropriate treatment may be the cause of the high under-5 mortality. Higher level of education of mothers or caregivers was significantly associated with promptness of sending their sick children to clinic/hospital at the onset of the illness. However, in the event child did not recover with selfmedication, 85% of mothers or caregivers would send their children with malaria to clinic or hospital. The results of the study call for prompt educational action targeting mothers for the correct treatment of both complicated and uncomplicated malaria in children under-5 years.
