TITLE:
Quality Assurance (QA) Tool in Public Health Campaigns: A Look at the 2017 LLIN Replacement Campaign in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Jalal-Eddeen Abubakar Saleh, Wondimagegnehu Alemu, Akubue Augustine Uchenna, Abdullahi Saddiq, Rex Mpazanje, Bala Mohammed Audu
KEYWORDS:
Malaria, Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets, Quality Assurance, National Malaria Elimination Programme, Adamawa, Edo, Imo, Kwara, Ondo, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.5 No.6,
June
26,
2018
ABSTRACT: Background: Although there are various malaria intervention measures, the long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) are considered as the most cost-effective intervention measure for malaria endemic countries. In line with the Global Technical Strategies, and as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the other available malaria preventive measures to achieve malaria control and elimination in especially the malaria endemic countries include the intermittent prophylactic treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), intermittent prophylactic treatment in infants (IPTi), indoor residual spray (IRS), seasonal malaria chemoprophylaxis (SMC), and recently the use of malaria vaccine. This study examines the role of quality assurance (QA) tool as deployed by WHO in the 2017 LLIN replacement campaigns in the states that implemented the campaign in Nigeria—Adamawa, Edo, Imo, Kwara, and Ondo. For the purpose of this study, the QA tool examined four components during the campaign—logistics, strategies, technical, and demand creation. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using the QA checklist developed and applied by the WHO professional officers intra campaign between April and December 2017. In each of the states, a total of six LGAs were randomly selected using the EPI risk status (AFP performance indicators and the routine immunization coverage). The findings from the QA checklist tool were analyzed using the SPSS version 24 and the results discussed accordingly. Results: The results looked at general and specific issues across the five states. While the general issues are more in Kwara state in comparison to the other four states—logistics (15%), strategies (12%), technical (13%), and demand creation (7%), the specific issues are almost same across the five states; these specific issues are poor crowd control (12%), early closure of distribution sites (14%), mix-up of data at the distribution sites (15%), poor communication medium between supervisors and teams at the field (11%), safety concerns by the recipients (10%), lack of adequate knowledge on the LLIN usage (9%), inadequate LLIN storage sites (13%), and inadequate plans for LLIN movement between the distribution points (16%). In spite this; all the five states had at least 80% in the area of programme ownership. Conclusion: On the overall, the study further underscores the importance of using quality assurance checklists in public health campaigns as they help ensure that campaigns meet the minimum required standard.