%0 Journal Article
%T Malaria treatment perceptions, practices and influences on provider behaviour: comparing hospitals and non-hospitals in south-east Nigeria
%A Obinna Onwujekwe
%A Benjamin Uzochukwu
%A Nkem Dike
%A Nkoli Uguru
%A Emmanuel Nwobi
%A Elvis Shu
%J Malaria Journal
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2875-8-246
%X To examine the knowledge, pattern of treatment provision and factors influencing the behaviour of hospitals and non-hospitals in the treatment of malaria, so as to identify loci for interventions to improve treatment of the disease.A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 225 providers from hospitals and non-hospitals about their malaria treatment practices and factors that influence their provision of malaria treatment services in south-east Nigeria. The data from hospitals and other providers were compared for systematic differences.73.5% of hospitals used microscopy to diagnose malaria and only 34.5.1% of non-hospitals did (p < 0.05). Majority of the respondents considered ability to pay bills (35.2%), already existing relationship (9.4%) and body mechanism (35.2%) of the patient before they provided malaria treatment services. Pressure from wholesalers to providers to repay the cost of supplied drugs was the major influence of the type of drugs provided to patients.There are many challenges to appropriate provision of malaria treatment services, although challenges are less in hospitals compared to other types of non-hospitals. Improving proper diagnosis of malaria and improving the knowledge of providers about malaria are interventions that could be used to improve malaria treatment provision.Malaria is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria, and particularly affects children under five years of age [1]. Worldwide, it kills more than one million people each year and between 20 and 40 percent of outpatient visits and between 10 and 15 percent of hospital admissions in Africa are attributed to malaria [2-4]. However, the prevailing method for diagnosing malaria in SSA is by clinical impression, which, in turn, typically amounts to treating all fevers as malaria [5]. Hence, there is a potential bias for overestimating the burden of the disease.People seek treatment for malaria from a wide range of sources ranging from itin
%U http://www.malariajournal.com/content/8/1/246