Analysis of Knowledge Management Practice Studies among the Plasmodium falciparum Positive Patients Attending out Patient Departments in Awka, South Anambra State

Aim: To analyze the Knowledge Management Practice Studies among the Plasmodium falciparum positive patients attending outpatient departments in AWKA, South Anambra state.

Study Design: Blood samples were randomly collected from 210 febrile patients attending the OPD and interviewed on malaria knowledge and management practice, using semi-structured questionnaire from three different clinical laboratories, two of which are hospitals.

Place and duration of Study: This study was carried out in Medical Microbiology and Parasitology unit of Anambra State University teaching Hospital, Awka South, South-East Nigeria between February and August, 2013.

Methodology: Thick & thin blood smears were stained and examined under microscope. At least 100 oil immersion fields were examined for diagnosis and parasite count was done against 200 WBC from thick smear. The questionnaire was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS (P < 0.05).

Results: The national drug policy for malaria treatment during the study period were found to be pyrimethamine, co-trimoxazole, sulphamethaxazole, and in few cases arthemether/lumefantrine. The prevalence rate of P. falciparum was 74.8% (157/210), while those on both sexes were 56.1 % and 43.9 % in females and males respectively. Only 44.3%, 32.4%, 30.5% of the population studied showed good knowledge, attitude and practice respectively towards malaria infections.

Conclusion: The prevalence of P. falciparum were 22.3% and 21.1% in ages 5- 14 and 45- 54 respectively. Studies revealed that most people have good knowledge of malaria but give less attention to its preventive and control measures, thereby presenting very poor attitude and poor practice even when exposed to the infection. These issues may pose a problem, such as drug resistance when proper intervention measures are not followed.