Community case management of malaria in urban settings

The research processes in Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso shared the following core objectives. The primary objective was test the feasibility and acceptability of ACT unit-dose pre-pack for the management of malaria in children aged 6-59 months in urban areas. The specific objectives were to: • assess knowledge, perceptions and practice of household level preventive and treatment-seeking behaviours (including those surrounding drug use and costs); • establish the acceptability of the pre-packed anti-malaria drugs; • select and train a network of community medicine distributors (CMDs) • develop Information, Education and Communication/ Behaviour Change Communication (IEC/BCC) materials; • determine the proportion of children treated in <24 hours with pre-packed drugs made available through CMDs; • assess the adequacy of advice provided by CMDs; and • establish the compliance level by caregivers with the recommended treatment regimen. The Bolgatanga (Ghana), Kumasi (Ghana) and Jimma (Ethiopia) teams included this additional objective: • field test the use of the malaria rapid diagnostic tool in the home setting.