A preliminary analysis of the Scotland-Chikwawa health initiative project on morbedity

The Scotland-Chikwawa Health Initiative (SCHI) is carrying out health interventions aimed at achieving measurable results in major causes of disease and death in four villages in Chikwawa, a southern district in Malawi. Four villages of Namila, Sekeni, Mwanayaya, and Mwalija were earmarked for the pilot study. A baseline survey was carried out in July 2006 in which, among other areas of interest, the role of environmental and socioeconomic factors in diarrhoea and malaria prevalence was investigated. 55% of the households reported malaria illness in the previous two months. 84% of households reported fever as a symptom for malaria and only 8% of them mentioned additional symptoms.3% of the households mentioned either drainage of standing water or indoor and out door spraying of insecticides as a main preventive measure used to combat malaria. Malaria prevalence varied across the villages (p=000) and across different maternal age groups (p=0.038). Malaria prevalence also depended on the size of and in the type of windows used to the household (p=0.079 and p=0.004 respectively). A multinomial logistic regression analysis showed Horan, Editors, The Handbook of Water and Wastewater significant variation in the choice of treatment for malaria ailments. There were significant variations across malaria ailments. There were significant variations across included access to media, accessibility of a health facility, and in the type of windows used. 34 and 63% of the children were reported to have diarrhoea illness in the last three and six months respectively. A bivariate regression analysis showed that children from households with no toilet facilities were more likely to have suffered from diarrhoea (odds ratio (OR)=1.701, p=0.006) than those that own such facilities. Children from households that use private taps (OR=0.172, p=0.000) and where each member uses own basin (OR=0.382, p=0.003) or running water from a tap (OR=0.117, p=0.007) for washing hands were less likely to have suffered from diarrhoea in the previous six months. 97% of the households reported to have access to improved water supply surpassing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 70% by 2015. In contrast, only 48% reported to have access to improved sanitation thus lagging behind the MDGs targets of 74% by 2015