Malaria intervention measures and reduction of household morbidity and mortality: a comparative study of Temeke West District

The study discuss the effectiveness of Malaria intervention measures on reducing household morbidity and mortality. Studies have shown that many measures were implemented; these include the use of treated nets, spray, health education and destroying the sources of mosquito generation. In Tanzanian context these studies revealed that despite of implemented measures against malaria there is still morbidity and mortality caused by malaria. However, mortality and morbidity is less in Zanzibar island that in Tanzania mainland. This indicates that much is done on malaria intervention but little is known about the resources for the success of these measures in Zanzibar Island than Tanzania mainland. Therefore, this survey was conducted in Temeke District and West District in order to make a comparison of malaria intervention measures executed thereafter, come with unique strategies used in Zanzibar Island which resulted to the reduction of illness and death caused by malaria. These strategies used in Zanzibar Island will be extended to Tanzania main land. The methods used were both qualitative and quantitative where the research techniques were questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussion. The sample size was 267 respondents 14respondents involved in in-depth interviews and 20 respondents were involved in focus group discussion. The respondents for households were 233, where 40 were from west district and 193 were from Temeke District. The results revealed that the success of intervention measures in West District (Unguja) was as a result of good and effective implementation than Temeke District (Dar es Salaam). This means the coverage in West District were effective in every household than in Temeke District where there was a small coverage, the participation and willingness to use these measure were also higher in West District than Temeke District. The involvement of Government on reducing morbidity and mortality were more in West District than Temeke District. These differences resulted into differentials in success of measures against malaria in Zanzibar than Tanzania mainland. Lack of financial support, poor monitoring and evaluation of malaria programmes were some of the problems of poor implementation of malaria measures in Temeke. Therefore this should be taken into consideration in implementing malaria programmes in Temeke District.