Elphick H, Elphick D
Northern General Hospital, Herries Road, Sheffield, S5 7AU, United Kingdom.
Cent Afr J Med. 2003 Jul-Aug;49(7-8):87-9.
One objective of the World Health Organisation in the Roll Back Malaria initiative is to intensify the use of impregnated bed nets in malaria endemic regions.
To investigate knowledge about malaria transmission, awareness of disease prevention by the use of insecticide treated bed nets and current bed net use among hospital users in rural Zambia.
A questionnaire survey.
Relatives of children (six months to five years) admitted to St Francis' hospital in the Eastern Province of Zambia.
The majority of those surveyed understood how malaria is transmitted (90.7%), knew the main clinical features of malaria (99.4%) and knew that bed nets are useful in reducing the frequency of getting malaria (98.1%). However, very few of those questioned owned a bed net (27%). This is primarily due to a lack of availability of affordable nets rather than a lack of understanding about their use.
This survey demonstrates a willingness of the participants to purchase subsidised bed nets. We propose that donor provision of affordable bed nets in hospitals and rural health clinics would be a readily achievable method of increasing bed net use in rural Zambia and so help reach this objective of the Roll Back Malaria initiative.
世界卫生组织“遏制疟疾”倡议的目标之一是在疟疾流行地区加强使用浸药蚊帐。
调查赞比亚农村地区医院使用者对疟疾传播的了解、对使用杀虫剂处理过的蚊帐预防疾病的认识以及当前蚊帐的使用情况。
问卷调查。
赞比亚东部省圣弗朗西斯医院收治的6个月至5岁儿童的亲属。
大多数受访者了解疟疾的传播方式（90.7%），知道疟疾的主要临床特征（99.4%），并且知道蚊帐有助于减少感染疟疾的频率（98.1%）。然而，接受询问的人中很少有人拥有蚊帐（27%）。这主要是由于缺乏价格可承受的蚊帐，而非对其使用缺乏了解。
这项调查表明参与者愿意购买补贴蚊帐。我们建议，由捐助方在医院和农村卫生诊所提供价格可承受的蚊帐，将是一种易于实现的方法，可增加赞比亚农村地区蚊帐的使用，从而有助于实现“遏制疟疾”倡议的这一目标。
