Assessing the prevalence of malaria among children under 5 years, attending to treatment in Kamuli general hospital- Kamuli Municipality

Abstract

Malaria is a life threatening disease typically transmitted to humans through female anopheles mosquito carrying the parasite and remains one of the top killers of children below five years despite of the nationwide mosquito net distribution. A study to assess the prevalence of malaria among children under 5 years was carried out in Kamuli General Hospital, A hospital based cross sectional study and laboratory based malaria rapid diagnostic test to determine the prevalence of malaria in children under the age of 5 years were carried out to collect the data, this was done with the use of questionnaires survey that focused on the risk factors that contribute to malaria infection. The sample size of the study was 200 respondents, and the results revealed that 39% (n=78) were positive with malaria and 85% (n=122) of the participants had at least fallen sick due to malaria in 2020. And 65% (n=129) had mosquito nets 45% (n=90) were not sleeping in the net always. While 20% (n=40) were sometimes sleeping in the net. Majority of the participants 78% (n=155) revealed that they had a bush around their house and 60% (n=119) engaged in outdoor activities in the evening thus predisposing them to mosquito bites. However, the study revealed a gap in interventions such as mosquito net distributed and use, presence of stagnant water in the participants’ homesteads coupled with participants’ rampant evening outdoor activities and low knowledge on malaria prevention. The researcher recommends that VHTs should be tasked to educate people on malaria control and prevention as a way of containing the prevalence of malaria in the District, and the Government through Ministry of Health should design customized intervention for Kamuli District and Busoga region at large in order to reduce the high malaria prevalence.