TITLE:
Provider Adherence to Malaria Test, Treat and Track Policy in the Binduri District of the Upper East Region of Ghana
AUTHORS:
Justina Bompaana Tamponab, Johnpual Amenu, Emmanuel Amaglo, Godwin Edem Yaotsey, Wisdom Kwami Takramah, Priscilla Aku Nuna Dotse, Livingstone Asem
KEYWORDS:
Test, Treat, Track, Malaria
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.12 No.2,
June
28,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: Malaria is a disease of public health concern, which causes significant mortality and morbidity in the tropics, particularly in Africa. Ghana as a country has been implementing a combination of preventive and curative interventions as outlined in the Strategic Plan for Malaria Control in Ghana, 2014-2020. Additionally, Ghana subscribes to sub-regional and global initiatives such as the test, treat and track (T3) initiative which seeks to ensure that every suspected malaria case is tested, every case tested positive is treated with the recommended quality-assured antimalarial medicine, and every case treated with antimalarial is followed up to ensure complete parasite clearance. However, the implementation of this policy is a challenge, hence the need to study provider adherence to the testing, treating, and tracking. Materials and method: The study is cross-sectional in nature and data for this research was collected from consulting room registers, patients’ folders, the District Health Information Management System and a structured questionnaire designed to interview healthcare providers. The data was exported into Stata for cleaning and analysis. The results of the study were presented in the form of statistical charts and tables. Results: The study revealed that generally, provider adherence to the T3 policy was encouraging in the Binduri district, and a high level of testing (100%) of suspected malaria cases eliminated the practice of presumptive treatment. However, tracking of patients (68.2%) was not as high as testing and treatment which was revealed by the number asked to return for a review during the folder review. Conclusion: Significant progress in clinicians’ adherence to policy on malaria case management (T3) in the Binduri District. Continued training and facilitative supervision are essential to sustain gains and close existing gaps in clinicians’ adherence to malaria case management policy.