Abstract:
Background: Malaria el:iimination is the inte rruption of local mosquito-borne malaria transmission; reduction to zero of the incidences of infection caused by human malaria parasites. Ethiopia launche s malaria elimination strategic plan and has been implemented in selected districts across the country since 2017. Among those selected zones or districts South wollo zone is one of elimination targeted area. The current stage of malaria elimination in Efuiopia requires experienced local health workers with sufficient knowledge of malaria who help to keep the public health system vigilant about a possible resurgence. This study aims to determine the level of malaria elimination practic•e and identify the possible factors which will associated with the practice of malaria elimination among health workers and also to propose corresponding suggestions to achie·ve the elimination goal.
Objective: The objective ,of this stud y was to assess malaria elimination practice and associated factors among health care pro vide rs in sout h wollo zone, Amhara region
Method: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from the 1st April to May, 2022. Multistage sampling was used to get the total sample size of 541 health workers. An interviewer administered semi-structur ed que stionnaire was us ed to collect quantitative data on pr.a ctice and associated factors towards malaria elimination among health workers. All the questionnaires were checked visually coded and entered into Epi-data and SPSS version 21. Descriptive s tatistics was used to describe fac tors and the simple binary logistic regression and multiple binary logistic regression were used to identify candidate variables and possible factors affecting the practice of malaria elimination among :health workers respect,ively.
Result: The overall good level of malaria elimination practice among health workers in south wollo was
244(45.3%) with 95% CI:41-4'9.5 .T he odds of malaria eli minatio n pract ice among respondent's occupation of health officer(AOR= 1.831{1.034-3.243),working in health center (AOR=0.39,95% CI:0.21- 0.73), working in between 6 to 10 years(AOR=2.08:95%CI:l.174-3.671),malaria elimination training taken ( AOR= l .47, 95% CI:1.01-2.15) and having good knowledge (AOR= l .5 3 .9 5 % C I;( l .05 -2.23) were significantly assoc iate witlh the malaria elimination practice.
Conclusion and recommendation: below half of 244(45.3%) participants were still practiced poor measure of malaria elimination practice measures. Partic ipant ' s working experience (6-10 years), qualification (health officer), training status and good knowledge on malaria elimination were a positive association on malaria elimination practice. The finding recommends that expanding training across all professions and avail the malaria commodities priorly by collaboration other stakeholders also important to effectively eliminate malaria.
Keywords: malaria elimination, Foci, case investigation, Foci inve stig ation
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