Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2001 Feb 3;322(7281):270-3.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.322.7281.270.

Impact on malaria morbidity of a programme supplying insecticide treated nets in children aged under 2 years in Tanzania: community cross sectional study

S Abdulla  1 , J A Schellenberg, R Nathan, O Mukasa, T Marchant, T Smith, M Tanner, C Lengeler
Affiliations

Impact on malaria morbidity of a programme supplying insecticide treated nets in children aged under 2 years in Tanzania: community cross sectional study

S Abdulla et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess the impact of a social marketing programme for distributing nets treated with insecticide on malarial parasitaemia and anaemia in very young children in an area of high malaria transmission.

Design: Community cross sectional study. Annual, cross sectional data were collected at the beginning of the social marketing campaign (1997) and the subsequent two years. Net ownership and other risk and confounding factors were assessed with a questionnaire. Blood samples were taken from the children to assess prevalence of parasitaemia and haemoglobin levels.

Setting: 18 villages in the Kilombero and Ulanga districts of southwestern Tanzania.

Participants: A random sample of children aged under 2 years.

Main outcome measures: The presence of any parasitaemia in the peripheral blood sample and the presence of anaemia (classified as a haemoglobin level of <80 g/l).

Results: Ownership of nets increased rapidly (treated or not treated nets: from 58% to 83%; treated nets: from 10% to 61%). The mean haemoglobin level rose from 80 g/l to 89 g/l in the study children in the successive surveys. Overall, the prevalence of anaemia in the study population decreased from 49% to 26% in the two years studied. Treated nets had a protective efficacy of 62% (95% confidence interval 38% to 77%) on the prevalence of parasitaemia and of 63% (27% to 82%) on anaemia.

Conclusions: These results show that nets treated with insecticide have a substantial impact on morbidity when distributed in a public health setting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Kitua AY, Smith TA, Alonso PL, Urassa H, Masanja H, Kimario J, et al. The role of low level Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia in anaemia among infants living in an area of intense and perennial transmission. Trop Med Int Health. 1997;2:325–333. - PubMed
    1. Menendez C, Kahigwa E, Hirt R, Vounatsou P, Aponte JJ, Font F, et al. Randomised placebo-controlled trial of iron supplementation and malaria chemoprophylaxis for prevention of severe anaemia and malaria in Tanzanian infants. Lancet. 1997;350:844–850. - PubMed
    1. Bloland PB, Lackritz EM, Kazembe PN, Were JB, Steketee R, Campbell CC. Beyond chloroquine: implications of drug resistance for evaluating malaria therapy efficacy and treatment policy in Africa. J Infect Dis. 1993;167:932–937. - PubMed
    1. Lengeler C. Insecticide-treated bednets and curtains for preventing malaria. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2000;4:CD000363. - PubMed
    1. Insecticide treated nets in the 21st century. Report of the second international conference on insecticide treated nets, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, October 1999. London: Malaria Consortium (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); 2000.

Publication types