Abstract:

Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, causing more than one million deaths worldwide each year, and over 90% of them occur in Africa. Nigeria has the highest malaria burden in the world and more than 60% outpatient visits in Nigeria is due to malaria. According to World Malaria report of 2018, 19% of global malaria death occur in Nigeria. This can be attributed partly to poor patient management due to poor diagnosis; therefore, prompt and reliable laboratory diagnosis is recognized as an important component of effective malaria case management and control. It is therefore necessary to establish External quality assurance (EQA) on malaria diagnosis, which will seek to achieve reliable and accurate malaria diagnosis which leads to improved patient care and rationale drug use. EQA provides objective evidence of laboratory competence for customers, accrediting bodies and regulatory agencies, and serves as a unique source of information that is not obtainable in other ways. It involves the assessment of factors that influence the quality of malaria diagnosis. This study looked at Malaria Diagnosis in 40 primary health centers in Cross River State of Nigeria within 2013-2015, comparing the reports of each year, there was a progressive improvement in the processes of diagnosis, reliable results were produced, record keeping improved, storage, work space improved and skills of personnel from inception of 2013 till 2015. DHIS report for same period when compared showed significant reduction in confirmed uncomplicated malaria. Therefore, external quality assurance on diagnosis has positive impact malaria control.

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