Research Article
Disease Occurrence and Utilization of Preventive Measures in Self- Perceived Cases of Malaria
Indranil Acharya* and Jayanti P Acharya
Associate Professor Community Medicine, Bhaskar Medical College, Moinabad, Hyderabad, India
- *Corresponding Author:
- Indranil Acharya
Residency, Bank Colony
RK Puram, Secunderabad
Hyderbad, AP 500 056, India
Tel: +91-9030063376; 040-2711 2139
E-mail: indranilacharya@gmail.com
Received date March 11, 2013; Accepted date: April 15, 2013; Published date: April 17, 2013
Citation:Acharya I, Acharya JP (2013) Disease Occurrence and Utilization of Preventive Measures in Self-Perceived Cases of Malaria. J Community Med Health Educ 3:206. doi:10.4172/2161-0711.1000206
Copyright: © 2013 Acharya I, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim: To study the utilization of preventive anti-malaria services by fever cases who perceived that the same was due to Malaria, in a community in the fringe area of a cantonment in a city in India, so as to render some relevant pointers towards existing lacunae in the public health system.
Methods: Two hundred and ten cases of self-perceived malaria were identified and interviewed over a period of 9 months, to find out as to what proportion amongst them were actually slide positive (confirmed) cases and to obtain utilization rates of anti-malarial preventive measures/services.
Results: Though only 2 cases were confirmed by blood smear exam (0.95%, Slide Positivity Rate 0.0137/1000) it was found out that the majority of cases had availed of some health facility to confirm their illness as malaria or otherwise, taken some form of drug treatment prescribed by health personnel / medical officers and adopted routine preventive measures against mosquitoes. Reasons for non-utilization of such measures/services were ascertained amongst the few who did not to do so.
Conclusion: Based on the observations certain recommendations, like (a) intensifying Malaria awareness activities and integrated vector-control measures by the responsible health authorities esp. before the Malaria months, and (b) the communities’ whole-hearted participation in various anti-Malaria programs, were made.
