Assessing The Use Of Mosquito Treated Nets In The Reduction Of Child Mortality In Kibaha District

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed to assess the use of mosquito treated nets in the reduction of child mortality in Kibaha district in Pwani region. The Demographic Health Survey of 2010 (DHS) showed that, the rate of under five deaths is increasing in Kibaha as it ranks 350 per 1000 people annually. This is high compared to other regions Moshi and Mwanza which lies around 180/100 per annual. Also the WHO, 2009 report, showed that in Tanzania 131 children under five years old die due to malaria cases. UNICEF through its report of 2007 revealed that the under five death in Tanzania due to malaria is increasing from 150/1000 people to 180/1000 people annually to various region particularly Kibaha district (UNICEF, 2007). The specific objectives included in this study were: to assess the contribution of the household heads towards using Mosquito Treated nets, to evaluate the factors of not using Mosquito treated nets within the household, to assess the causes and challenges of effective use of Mosquito treated nets within the household and to examine the effects of using Mosquito treated nets in reducing child mortality. This study used cross sectional survey. The subjects of the study were taken from under five health survey and the sample size were selected randomly from the household in Kibaha district and used as a sample size for representative of the whole population of Kibaha. The study has observed that, income limitation of the household in Kibaha District is the major cause of increasing child mortality as many family lack health services due absence of money. Also, the climate of the area being hot increase rate of not using nets for their children and thus raising child mortality. The study observed that lack of vi Health education contributes child mortality as the parents lack knowledge of using mosquito nets within their houses. Lastly is a cultural belief of the people as many families have more than one wife. This made a large family in which a father could not afford all expenses of health services. Therefore this implies that there is need of strong effort from the government to rehabilitate the situation by increasing medical officers that could balance with the increasing population. Also provision of health education to the community so that they could eradicate malaria that cause under five deaths. Lastly there is a need to involve the community in various sources of income generating activities particularly those investments that are being located in Kibaha. This will increase income for survival. As far as the study is concerned, malaria is a serious disease in our country as it kills million of people particularly under five. The government together with development partners has the responsibility to address all strong causes of malaria and find solutions of treating them. Also, during the national budget the government has to take time on reviewing serious diseases within heath sector and thus take an opportunity to increase services like medicine, training medical officer so as to treat malaria effectively. Development partners have to be encouraged to invest in eradicating malaria by providing education to individuals mostly in rural areas where the problem is extreme.