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Quality Assurance (QA) Tool in Public Health Campaigns: A Look at the 2017 LLIN Replacement Campaign in NigeriaDOI: 10.4236/oalib.1104701, PP. 1-8 Subject Areas: Public Health Keywords: Malaria, Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets, Quality Assurance, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Adamawa, Edo, Imo, Kwara, Ondo, Nigeria Abstract
Background: Although there
are various malaria intervention measures, the long-lasting insecticidal nets
(LLIN) are considered as the most cost-effective intervention measure for
malaria endemic countries. In line with the Global Technical Strategies, and as
recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the other available malaria
preventive measures to
achieve malaria control and elimination in especially the malaria endemic
countries include the intermittent prophylactic treatment in pregnancy (IPTp),
intermittent prophylactic treatment in infants (IPTi), indoor residual spray
(IRS), seasonal malaria chemoprophylaxis (SMC), and recently the use of malaria
vaccine. This study examines the role of quality assurance (QA) tool as
deployed by WHO in the 2017 LLIN replacement campaigns in the states that
implemented the campaign in Nigeria—Adamawa,
Edo, Imo, Kwara, and Ondo. For the purpose of this study, the QA tool examined four components during the
campaign—logistics, strategies, technical, and demand creation. Methods: This is a cross-sectional
study using the QA checklist developed and applied by the WHO professional
officers intra campaign between April and December 2017. In each of the states, a
total of six LGAs were randomly selected using the EPI risk status (AFP
performance indicators and the routine immunization coverage). The findings from the QA checklist tool were analyzed
using the SPSS version 24 and the results discussed accordingly. Results: The
results looked at general and specific issues across the five
states. While the general issues are more in Kwara state in comparison to the
other four states—logistics (15%), strategies (12%), technical (13%), and
demand creation (7%),
the specific issues are almost same across the five states; these specific
issues are poor
crowd control (12%), early closure of distribution sites (14%), mix-up of data
at the distribution sites (15%), poor communication medium between supervisors
and teams at the field (11%),
safety concerns by the recipients (10%), lack of
adequate knowledge on the LLIN usage (9%), inadequate LLIN storage sites (13%),
and inadequate plans for LLIN movement between the distribution points (16%).
In spite this; all the five states had at least 80% in the area of programme
ownership. Conclusion: On the overall, the study further underscores the
importance of using quality
assurance checklists in public health campaigns as they help ensure that campaigns
meet the minimum required standard.
Saleh, J. A. , Alemu, W. , Uchenna, A. A. , Saddiq, A. , Mpazanje, R. and Audu, B. M. (2018). Quality Assurance (QA) Tool in Public Health Campaigns: A Look at the 2017 LLIN Replacement Campaign in Nigeria. Open Access Library Journal, 5, e4701. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104701. References
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