Use Prevalence of Insecticide-Treated Mosquito Bed Nets among Pregnant Population in Osogbo, Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria affects 40million of the world's population involving about 103 countries with estimated 2.5 billion people in the malaria shadow. Children and pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria attack compared to the general population. Intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has increasingly been used in sub-Saharan Africa. However, resistance to SP is steadily increasing in some areas in sub-Saharan Africa, and the available arsenal of alternative tools for malaria control in pregnancy is very limited. One of the most promising of these tools is insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs). A cross sectional study of the awareness and use prevalence of ITNs among the pregnant population in Osogbo, a town in south-western Nigeria was carried out. Three hundred and eighty-two responses were obtained. The age range of the respondents was 15-39 years, and the mean age was 28.2±5.1, and most of them, 229 (59.9%) were in the third trimester. One hundred and fifty-seven (41.1%) of the respondents have heard about ITNs, but only 16 (10.2%) actually sleeps inside ITNs. Use prevalence of ITNs was very low among primigravidae who were the most at risk adult population when compared to multigravidae, 37.5%, and 62.5%, respectively. The low awareness and low use prevalence of ITNs (which had been shown to reduce all cause mortality among young children by 16–33%, and also provide protection to pregnant women), calls for education of this at risk population through the antenatal clinic, and the media. The antenatal clinic and the infant welfare clinic will also be an avenue for the distribution of ITNs at highly subsidized rate. Since these pregnant populations are the mothers of under 5 children, the other group susceptible to severe malaria, their embracing the use of ITN will mean reduction of malaria burdens in them as well as their children.

Nigerian Medical Practitioner Vol. 52 (2) 2007: pp. 29-32