Prevalence of Plasmodium Infection and Peoples’ Attitude and Practice Towards Malaria Control in Tegede Woreda, Soroka Kebel , North Gondar Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Human malaria is a common and life-threatening disease in many tropical and sub-tropical areas. Consequently, malaria epidemics are a serious public health problem in these area. Insecticide treated bed nets (ITN) are the most powerful malaria control tool. The utilization of ITN is still unacceptably low among rural people. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of malaria infection and assess peoples’ attitude and practice about utilization of ITN and other prevention and control strategies among rural people in Soroka, North Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Community based cross-sectional survey study was carried out from February-March 2018 in Soroka, North Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Clinical records of malaria were also collected for analysis of the trends of malaria in the last five years (2014 -2018). Diagnosis of malaria infection was done by microscopic examination using thick and thin Giemsa stained blood smears for the presence of Plasmodium species. Additionally, structured and pre-tested questionnaires were used to assess the socio demographic characterstics of study subjects about ITN utilization in the study area. All the data were entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. The over all malaria prevance was 10.42%, in the area where the prevalence of malaria was higher in males than females. Of the total 403 study subjects (11.4%) and (35.6) had completed elementary and high school education respectively. Malaria prevalence has not statistically significant association with some socio-demographic characteristics, only age group had statistically significant association with malaria infection. ITN utilization among study participants was77.2% of them were used always slept under ITN during study time. The malaria prevalence trend in the study area showed that uneven distributions of malaria infection through all months, seasons and years in the population of the study area. Efforts to increase utilization of ITN in the community through community.