Korean J Parasitol.  2011 Dec;49(4):365-371. 10.3347/kjp.2011.49.4.365.

Use and Effects of Malaria Control Measures in Pregnancy in Lagos, Nigeria

• Efunshile
• Amoo AO
• Akintunde
• Ojelekan O
• Konig W
• Konig B

• KMID: 1715741
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2011.49.4.365

Abstract

In Nigeria, malaria causes up to 11% of maternal mortality. Our main aim was to find out the most common mosquito control measures employed by the pregnant women in Lagos and their effects on malaria infection. The study was carried out over a period of 6 months during which trained interviewers administered questionnaires to 400 pregnant women. The prevalence of malaria was 8.4%. There was no significant association between the prevalence of malaria and age, level of education, or occupation of the participants. Pregnant women in the age range 26-30 had the mean parasite density (409.9+/-196.80). Insecticide spray (32.8%), mosquito coil (27.5%), and insecticide-treated nets (ITN) (15.5%) were the major mosquito control measures employed by the participants while the prevalence of infection among them were 2.3%, 6.2%, and 3.2%, respectively (P<0.05). Only 18.3% of the women had taken more than one dose of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT), while another 11.8% had taken a single dose. The infection rate among them was 4.1% and 6.4%, respectively. Malaria prevalence was highest among those who had not received any dose of IPT (10%). This study showed that the use of ITN and IPT among the pregnant women were still unacceptably low. It also showed that the use of insecticide spray which was the most common malaria control measure adopted by the participants was effective despite the fact that it is not a National Malaria Control Policy. We recommend that a sustained integrated mosquito management and public education should be strengthened in Nigeria.

Keyword

Malaria; insecticide-treated nets (ITN); intermittent preventive treatment (IPT); insecticide spray; pregnancy

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Animals
*Culicidae/parasitology
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
*Insect Vectors/parasitology
Insecticides
Malaria/epidemiology/*prevention & control
Mosquito Control/*methods
Nigeria/epidemiology
Plasmodium/*physiology
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic/epidemiology/*prevention & control
Prenatal Care
Prevalence
Public Health
Questionnaires
Young Adult
Insecticides