The Effect of Mass Testing, Treatment and Tracking on the Prevalence of Febrile Illness in Children under 15 in Ghana

Collins Stephen Ahorlu; Ignatius Cheng Ndong; Daniel Okyere; Benedicta A Mensah; Chuo Ennestine Chu; Juliana Y Enos; Benjamin Abuaku

doi:10.3390/pathogens11101118

The Effect of Mass Testing, Treatment and Tracking on the Prevalence of Febrile Illness in Children under 15 in Ghana

Pathogens. 2022 Sep 29;11(10):1118. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11101118.

Authors

Collins Stephen Ahorlu¹, Ignatius Cheng Ndong^{1

2}, Daniel Okyere¹, Benedicta A Mensah¹, Chuo Ennestine Chu^{1

2}, Juliana Y Enos¹, Benjamin Abuaku¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra P.O. Box LG 581, Ghana.
² Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda P.O. Box 572, Cameroon.

Abstract

Background: Malaria remains a serious threat to children under 15 years of age in sub-Sahara Africa. Mass testing, treatment and tracking (MTTT) of malaria has been reported to reduce parasite load significantly. However, the impact of MTTT on the prevalence of febrile illnesses in children under 15 is not yet clear. This study explores the impact of MTTT complemented by prompt home-based management of malaria on febrile illnesses and their treatment in children under 15 years old. Methods: A cohort of 460 children under 15 years were recruited from the Pakro subdistrict in Ghana during a community-wide implementation of a quarterly MTTT intervention. The MTTT implementation involved testing all household members for malaria using RDTs, and positive cases were treated with Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). Febrile illnesses among this cohort in the two weeks prior to the prevalence survey at baseline and endline were recorded to constitute date for analysis. Results: The prevalence of febrile illnesses, such chills, convulsion, fever, diarrhoea, headache, vomit, cough/rashes or stomachache, etc., were recorded). Asymptomatic parasitaemia prevalence at baseline was 53.3%, which dropped to 44.1% at evaluation. An overall decrease in the parasitaemia prevalence of 33.0% (OR = 0.67, CI = 0.50, 0.89) was observed at evaluation compared to baseline after adjusting for age, ITN use and temperature. A 67% decrease in severe anaemia cases (Hb < 7) was observed at evaluation. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that implementing MTTT complemented by home-based timely management of malaria does not only reduce febrile illnesses and for that matter malaria prevalence, but could also reduce severe anaemia in children under 15 years old.

Keywords: Ghana; MTTT; Pakro; febrile illness; malaria; malaria prevalence.

Grants and funding

Financial support for this study was provided by the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme in Implementation Research. The TDR played no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis or interpretation for this study. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this publication, and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policies or views of their institutions.