Abstract:

Malaria remains a major public health challenge in Abuja. Considerable efforts have been made to reduce the prevalence of the disease; however, the last decade of malaria control has witnessed increased support by government and its partners in the areas of mass distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and a massive scale up in malaria case management. Consequently, it has become necessary to provide evidence-based data on the status of progress towards malaria control. A retrospective hospital based study on the uptake of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy drug for treatment of acute malaria was carried out using a five years hospital records from Wuse District Hospital Abuja. All the records of patients diagnosed with malaria confirmed by Giemsa stained thick and thin peripheral blood films were considered. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS Chicago version 25. Appropriate tables and mean numbers were displayed. A chi square test was performed to determine the level of significance using 95% confidence interval and p- value. Findings revealed a total of 22,934 patients were diagnosed with acute malaria based on hospital records. Only 48.4% of the patients received Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs. 32.1% of the patients were given non-ACT drugs, 9.3% of patients received Sulfadoxine – Pyrimethamine, 7.59% were given Chloroquine. The study concluded that, The use of Artemisin base Combination Therapy (ACT) as recommended by WHO has a significant influence on malaria treatment outcome.

Keywords: Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy, Malaria, Uptake, Malaria.

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