Impact of home management of Plasmodium falciparum malaria on childhood malaria control in sub-Saharan Africa.

In sub-Saharan Africa almost all of the malaria deaths occur in children below five years of age and these deaths occur within 48 hours of onset of symptoms. Consequently, the home management of malaria (HMM), was introduced to ensure early recognition of and prompt and appropriate response to malarial illness in children within the home or the community. In this report the impact of HMM in childhood malaria control in sub-Saharan Africa was reviewed using relevant publications identified through a Medline Entrez-Pubmed and Google search. There was convincing evidence from the studies reviewed that HMM played a contributory role in reducing progress to severe malaria and overall childhood mortality. The major challenges to the implementation of HMM included failure of caregivers to complete a full course of antimalarial drug, provision of financial motivation to community drug distributors, non-adherence of health workers to recommendations on the use of antimalarial drugs, limited acceptance, possible adverse outcomes, and long term sustainability of HMM. With increased political will and commitment of all stakeholders as well as the mobilization of additional and substantial resources for implementation by the global community, the Abuja declaration of halving mortality from malaria in African may be attained in the nearest future.