infectious-diseases-std-aids-2018-scientifictracks

12 / 16

Infectious Diseases
and STD-AIDS
Infectious Diseases and STD-AIDS 2018
Journal of Transmitted Diseases and Immunity
ISSN 2471-8084
A p r i l 2 6 - 2 7 , 2 0 1 8
R o m e , I t a l y
Page 32
Background: If people are not diagnosed and treated promptly for malaria,
they may develop severe complications and death. Globally, an estimated 3.3
billion people are at risk of being infected with malaria and 1.2 billion are at
high risk. The World Health Organization recommends using malaria rapid
diagnostic tests (RDTs) or microscopy followed by prescribing antimalarials
only to patients who have a positive test result. In Rwanda, malaria RDT was
introduced in 2008 to be used by community health workers (CHWs) before
offering treatment. This study assessedmalaria test preference and associated
factors among community members in Rubavu district, Rwanda.
Methods: This was a quantitative cross-sectional study. A structured self-
administered questionnaire was given to 384 community members in
households that were randomly pre-selected from community of Rubavu
district. Chi-square test (p<0.05) was computed to establish factors associated
with preference of malaria diagnostic test.
Results: The result shows that majority (77.6%) of the respondents prefer
RDT over microscopy test (22.4%). The RDT was more preferable among
household heads with low level of education (never attended, primary school,
and secondary school) (p=0.001), with low monthly income (p=0.002) and
those with community based health insurance (p=001). Descriptive analysis
was also done for perceived benefits of using RDTs, reasons for not accepting
RDTs and suggestions to improve RDTs in the community, the results show that
majority 96.9% perceived that RDTs is used as fast diagnosis, 84.9% not accept
using RDTs because on non-trusted results and 90.6% suggested provision of
pictorial job aid to the CHWs.
Conclusion: Universal RDTs to all human species called combination or ‘combo’
test are the preferred method for the diagnosis of malaria by communities in
Rubavu district. The test is more acceptable in households with low level of
education, low monthly income, with community based health insurance.
Biography
Gashegu Misbah has completed his Master of Public Health
from Mount Kenya University. He is the Voluntary Researcher.
He has published two papers in reputed journals and has been
serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute. During his
career he had acquired strong skills through his experience in
working with various stakeholders. He has worked with public
institutions, international organizations and academic institu-
tions either on full time basis and part time basis. He previously
worked with PROTECT-RWANDA as in charge of Community
Engagement Officer. More to this, he carried out research proj-
ect that is a significant contribution to his academic growth and
previously he worked with World Health Organization (WHO) as
Research Assistant in data collection, data entry data cleaning
and analysis.
Factors associated with malaria test preference among households
in Rubavu district, Rwanda: A cross sectional study
Gashegu Misbah1 , Michael Habtu1 , Monica Mochama1,
Catherine Kansiime2 and Benon Asiimwe2
1Mount Kenya University, Rwanda
2Makerere University, Uganda
Gashegu Misbah et al., J Transm Dis Immun 2018 Volume 2
DOI: 10.21767/2573-0320-C1-002