Background: In Plateau State as well as in most parts of Nigeria, malaria continues to exert a significant burden on the population in terms of morbidity and mortality. Case management of malaria is being used as a major tool in limiting the duration and reduction of mortality associated with the disease. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of malaria case management among primary health-care (PHC) workers in Jos, Plateau State.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed in studying PHC workers involved in treatment of malaria in Jos, Plateau State. 105 PHC workers were selected using a multistage sampling technique and data was collected from them using a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Data processing and analysis was carried out using STATA 9 statistical software (Stata release 9, statcorp Texas, USA; 2005). Mean and standard deviation were done for quantitative variables while percentages were used to represent qualitative variables. A confidence level of 95% was used and level of statistical significance was set at P = 0.05.
Results: Mean of age of the PHC workers was 40 ± 8.1 years and majority of them were females (89%). About 40% of them were senior community health extension workers. Majority of the workers (70%) had not had any recent training on malaria case management. In spite of this, knowledge of malaria was good among the respondents (95% were able to define malaria and 98.1% were able to list the symptoms of malaria respectively). More than half of the respondents (55%) were also able to correctly manage severe malaria. There was a statistically significant association between health worker cadre and correctness of the drug prescriptions (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: Despite gaps in malaria case management, primary health-care workers in Jos appeared to be fairly knowledgeable in malaria case management.