Health centre versus home presumptive diagnosis of malaria in southern Ghana: implications for home-based care policy

被引：31

作者：

Dunyo, SK ^{[1
]}

Afari, EA ^{[1
]}

Koram, KA ^{[1
]}

Ahorlu, CK ^{[1
]}

Abubakar, I ^{[1
]}

Nkrumah, FK ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Ghana, Noguchi Mem Inst Med Res, Legon, Ghana

来源：

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE | 2000年 / 94卷 / 03期

关键词：

malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; children; presumptive diagnosis; home; health centre; Ghana;

D O I：

10.1016/S0035-9203(00)90324-9

中图分类号：

R1 [预防医学、卫生学];

学科分类号：

1004 ; 120402 ;

摘要：

A study was conducted in 1997 to compare the accuracy of presumptive diagnosis of malaria in children aged 1-9 years performed by caretakers of the children to that of health centre staff in 2 ecological zones in southern Ghana. Similar symptoms were reported in the children at home and at the health centre. In the home setting, symptoms were reported the same day that they occurred, 77.6% of the children with a report of fever were febrile (axillary temperature greater than or equal to 37.5 degrees C) and 64.7% of the reports of malaria were parasitologically confirmed. In the health centre, the median duration of symptoms before a child was seen was 3 days (range 1-14 days), 58.5% of the children with a report of fever were febrile and 62.6% of the clinically diagnosed cases were parasitologically confirmed. In the 2 settings almost all the infections were due to Plasmodium falciparum. Parasite density was 3 times higher in the health centre cases compared to the home-diagnosed cases. Early and appropriate treatment of malaria detected in children by caretakers may prevent complications that arise as a result of persistence of symptoms and attainment of high parasitaemic levels.

引用

页码：285 / 288

页数：4