Malaria in Tanzania is still a challenge that affect general welfare of people and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and most affected are the pregnant women and the children under 5 years[1]. There are control tools recommended for early detection is quality-assured diagnostic like MRDT and treatment of malaria cases with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), which helps in assurance early detection and also in medical management of malaria.[2]
World Health Organization in Geneva 2013, show that early treatment seeking is helpful in ruling out the disease and help in preventing and controlling malaria through prompt recognition of symptoms and signs of malaria from household level to community level [3] Early treatment also requires that appropriate health services and medication are accessible and used. [3]
Treatment seeking behavior for malaria need to be undertaken to identify patterns of care seeking and to assess what is known about the adequacy of the treatments used. [4] Study done in Ethiopia it shows that early diagnosis and treatment of malaria should take place within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms. [4]
Healthcare seeking behavior vary among those who utilize health facilities like hospitals, dispensaries and those who self-purchase of drugs exclusively on self-treatment usually with antimalarial were 58–42% respectively [4,5] According to study done in Oromia Ethiopia show that among those participants who were seeking treatment to health facilities seem to delays averaging three or more days. [4]
Knowledge on Early diagnosis and effective treatment seeking of malaria is an essential component to reduce the burden of malaria. [6] This requires appropriate infrastructure and resource, and also active engagement and participation of communities. [7,8] The response to most episodes begins with self-treatment, and close to half of case rely exclusively on self-treatment, usually with antimalarials and the study show the exclusive reliance on traditional methods is extremely rare, although traditional remedies are often combined with modern medicines. [9,10]
According to study done in Zambia 2010, show that the early diagnosis of the disease and treatment may be affected by several parameters including percentage of pregnant women receiving prenatal care, education level, government health expenditure, and GDP growth.[11] Treatment-seeking rates, which varied both within and among regions, revealed that public facilities were not always the primary facility type used.[11] Shows that 80.8% of the respondents reported that going to the hospital was their immediate care-seeking behavior once they felt malaria symptoms, while 11.2% opted for self-medication.[4]
The availability of ACT in all health facilities (government and private health facilities) and diagnostic material (microscopes or MRDT) is important for early diagnosis and proper treatment for the sick person to avoid malaria resurgence and effective surveillance system for breaking transmission. [12] Also it is important to define the nature of self-treatment, record of multiple treatments and attempt to identify the proportions of all cases who begin treatment with antimalarial as standardized time intervals. [4]
Early diagnosis and early treatment malaria play roles in reducing disease cases and to prevent death, according to WHO treatment guideline the best treatment recommended is artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), diagnostic test need to be taken before administering drugs so as to avoid drug resistance and availability of diagnostic tools in all health facilities is very important. [13,14]
Study done in Ethiopia showed that there was lack of knowledge toward treatment seeking behavior and early diagnosis showed that majority had poor knowledge which lead to low level of health-seeking behavior.[15,16] In spite of having Malaria control programs in Tanzania, still there is an increasing number of malaria cases, this situation may be influenced by the people who do not attend to the health facility for diagnosis, adherence of treatment regime and some fail to find medical care when they feel sick, inadequate of diagnostic tools and proper treatment or community does not accept ACT.[15]
There is no current study done regarding the knowledge on early diagnosis of malaria and treatment seeking behavior in Mwanza region, henceforth, this study therefore aims to determine the knowledge on early Malaria diagnosis and treatment seeking behavior among clients attending Outpatient department at Sekou-toure Regional referral hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania.