Malaria Diagnostic Testing among Public Health Physicians in Nigeria

Aims: Malaria is a major endemic public health problem in Nigeria and its diagnosis is often either missed or over-diagnosed. It is therefore necessary to determine the use of malaria diagnostic tests by the Community Health Physicians in Nigeria to make the appropriate diagnosis.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among Public Health physicians who attended the National Conference of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria which held in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, in the year 2013. The structured questionnaire was completed by all consenting physicians and analyzed with Excel and Epi-info.
Results: A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed but 125 (62.5%) responded. Majority of the respondents were females 69(55.2%), most physicians fell into the age group 31-40years 69(60%) and a large number were Registrars, 38 (46.6%). Although majority of the respondents said their usual diagnosis of patients for malaria were laboratory tests in adults 80.0% and children 79.5% but in the last diagnosis only 51% in adults and children 48% were made using laboratory tests.

Conclusion: The study showed that majority of the physicians would have desired to use diagnostic tests but the actual practice in the last diagnosis was low. This could be due to the urgency of treatment and delayed laboratory results. Laboratory results should be made available and timely in order to be used for diagnosis.