DELAY IN SEEKING EARLY MALARIA TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN BY MOTHERS IN NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Malaria remains the leading cause of fever and child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa,but prompt access to and appropriate treatment is an important life-saving malaria control strategy. This study examined why actions for early treatment of malaria in children are delayed by mothers in Nasarawa State using four indicators: duration between when symptoms of malaria are noticed and consultation for treatment, beliefs about the seriousness of the disease, knowledge of causation and decision making process. A multi-stage systematic random technique was adopted and a pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to 1416 respondents in six local government areas. Simple descriptive and chi-square statistics were used to analyze the data. The study findings reveal that while 96.3% of the respondents believed that malaria is caused by the bite of mosquito, only 56.9% protect their children from mosquito bite which causes malaria. Slightly more than half of the mothers (54.0%) take their children suffering from malaria to a treatment centre within 24 hours. Treatment at home (91.0%) was the main decision taken y mothers when their children had malaria. About 76.9% believed that a child can die if malaria is not treated. When a child is ill with malaria, the mothers discuss it with their spouses (98.3%) and the father's decides (92.6%) treatment centre. Since mothers are likely to delay seeking for help, it may be necessary to educate them on how to recognize and treat uncomplicated malaria in children at home. This will help in restricting consultation to treatment centres only for complicated malaria cases. This strategy, which is home friendly, may considerably reduce problems of delay in treating malaria in children. The role of fathers in deciding what and when care is sought for a child suggests that they should be explicitly targeted in malaria education strategies.