Studies on Home-Based Management of Malaria in Ogun State, South Western Nigeria

Background: The study area is Olambe, a fast-growing community in Ogun State, Nigeria. It shares the same boundary with Lagos State, Nigeria. It is highly populated due to high cost of rent and high cost of living in Lagos State which made lots of the inhabitants to migrate to neighbouring towns with easy access to Lagos State especially for workers or employees of Lagos State. The effect of home-based management of malaria (HMM) was carried out in Olambe in 2013. HMM is a major means of treatment in this part of Ogun State because the general hospitals or government hospitals available are only in Lagos State and it is quite a distance. A large percentage of the populace receives treatments from private-owned hospitals or solely depends on HMM. Methods: The sampling population was 250 respondents which are mothers of children under the age of five years. Structured questionnaires and oral interview were used in collecting data from the 250 consenting individuals. Results: A large percentage of the respondents were traders and not-well educated individuals (65.0%) who believed so much in home-based management of malaria due to financial difficulties, ignorance and distance to hospitals. About 5.5% are not educated and they attributed the ineffectiveness of some malaria drugs to fake drugs. They therefore use different herbal treatments. About 30.5% use both malaria drugs and herbal treatments for the treatment of malaria. The major factor for ineffective HMM in Olambe is wrong dosage of anti-malarial drugs, herbal treatment and wrong diagnosis. Artemisinin- based combination therapies (ACTS) was the preferred anti-malarial drug in this area. There is poor correlation between the reoccurrence of malaria and the type of drug used for the children (p0.05) Conclusion: This study deduced that few respondents practice HMM correctly while many of them end up in hospitals due to lack of ideal dosage of anti-malarial drugs. A large percentage of respondents take traditional treatments. There is paucity of information on the use of HMM in Olambe, Ogun State, Nigeria and therefore a need to improve HMM, organize programmes to sensitize the area and the local communities around Olambe on the way forward in HMM