Student Dissertation 3rd Batch

Community knowledge and experiences about malaria, its preventive measures and use off bed nets in Bangladesh

Om Prasad Gautam

Abstract 

Malaria is a major public health problem in South-East Asia Region in which 10 out of 11 countries are malaria endemic including Bangladesh where 13 out of 64 districts are seriously affected by malaria. Bangladesh has a long history in implementing malaria control interventions. At present Government of Bangladesh and a BRAC-lead consortium are going to scale-up malaria control programs with the support from Global Funds (GFATM). One of the strategies to control malaria is to distribute bed nets (ITNs/LLINs). This has been proved to be a cost effective and successful strategy for controlling malaria. The uptake of this intervention is determined by different factors including level of knowledge, experiences about malaria, socio demographics factors, personal behavior, social acceptability and affordability of the nets. The discrepancy between knowledge and the use of bed nets has also been reported in many other countries. Little is known about community participation and use of bed nets. In Bangladesh, there is little data from the field on the level of knowledge, experiences and its association with actual use of bed nets. Hence evidence from the field can help to fill the knowledge gap in order to effectively scale up the malaria control program with particular focus on bed nets and factors associated with their utilization at the community level.

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