Malaria is one of the oldest diseases of mankind and has been the greatest scourge and killer of all times. It is caused by protozoan parasites from the genus Plasmodium and is transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito or by a contaminated needle or transfusion. Malaria continues to be a threat to socioeconomic development in endemic societies in Sub-Saharan Africa and especially Cameroon being Africa in miniature. This was a cross-sectional study which ran from November 2018 to March 2019 with data collected using questionnaires. The study was carried out in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. The study the involved government District Hospitals and Health Centres under the Biyem Assi, Cité Verte, Efoulan and Nkolbisson Health Districts in Yaounde making use of their healthcare providers in the training on malaria case management from October 2017. 92 persons were recruited including 42 persons who were trained on malaria case management and 50 who were not trained. With respect to health districts, 20 participants came from Biyem-Assi, 24 from Cite Verte, 20 from Efoulan and 28 from Nkolbisson. These persons involved some of the healthcare providers in the four health districts who were trained on malaria case management in October 2017 and a number of healthcare providers who were not trained but who work in the same health facilities as the trained healthcare providers. We also employed purposive sampling. The results were summarised into three aspects; malaria diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The trained health care providers demonstrated very good knowledge on the species responsible for malaria, the signs associated with simple malaria, route and duration of simple malaria treatment with percentages of 97.62%, 100%, 97.62% and 90.48% respectively. Similarly, health care providers showed good knowledge with the signs and route of severe malaria treatment of 88.1% and 100% respectively. Corresponding good knowledge was seen with their untrained colleagues though with a slightly lesser percentage in each case. There was a significant difference (P=0.22) in knowledge of healthcare providers on malaria prevention between those trained 90% and those not trained 78.57% with respect to ITN distribution campaign. There was also a significant difference in knowledge with respect to 1st (P=0.01) and 2nd (P=0.02) line treatment on malaria as well as in 1st line treatment for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy (P=0.23, 0.05) respectively between trained and untrained healthcare providers. At the end we realised that there was a good level of knowledge of the components of the training program among those who were trained. There was a higher level of knowledge on malaria diagnosis and treatment for those who were trained compared to those who were not trained and not all the practices in malaria case management were carried out as per the national guidelines.
Malaria, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention, Health district
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