Malaria Prevalence in under Five Children Utilising Insecticide Treated Nets through Voucher Scheme Programme in Mtwara Municipality.

OBJECTIVE To determine the malaria prevalence in under five year old children, comparing those utilising with those not utilising insecticide treated nets in Mtwara Municipality. DESIGN Descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTING Five streets that were randomly selected in Mtwara Municipality. SUBJECTS Three hundred and ninety eight (398) under five year old children. RESULTS In the 398 under five year old children in this study, 18 (4.5%) and 20 (5.0%) tested positive by RDT and microscopy, respectively. Of the 385 who always used Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), 16 (4.2%) had malaria, compared to four among the 13 who rarely/or never used nets (30.8%). Thus there is a relationship between the use of the treated nets and prevalence of malaria (χ2 P-value 0.002). Inspite of the decline in malaria prevalence anaemia remain a big problem as among those 378 who tested negative for malaria, 81% had haemoglobin level below normal (8 and 11 g/dl). CONCLUSION Malaria infection has been prevented by the ITNs in under five years children as the prevalence of malaria is only 4.2% among net users compared to 30.8% non net users. The ITNs are useful since the overall five percent prevalence of malaria is less than expected in Mtwara region which had the prevalence of 33.6 percent in 2007 and less to the overall national prevalence of seven percent in under fives in urban areas in 2009. Plasmodium falciparum species is still a notorious cause of the disease among under fives compared to other types, thus the preventive measures should scientifically target this species at large.