Level of Implementation of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in Children Aged between 3 to 59 Months in Koza, Far North Region of Cameroon

Background: Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) is a strategy put in place by World Health Organisation (WHO) to fight against malaria in zones of high seasonal malaria transmission since the year 2012. This strategy has been implemented in the Far North and North regions of Cameroon since the year 2016. Despite the implementation of this program the number of cases and deaths from seasonal malaria among the under 5 seems to be rising in Koza health area. Objective: To determine the level of implementation of the SMC Program and its impact on the mortality of children aged 03 to 59 months during the season of high transmission. Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional and 7-years retrospective study. Data was surveyed for 3 months in 3 health areas of Koza health area. Data were collected and typed in Kobo collect, cleaned in MS Excel and analyzed in SPSS version 25 to come out with descriptive statistics. Results: Among the 172 households, female children were mostly represented 99 (57%) The age group mostly represented was 2 years. The population knowledge on SMC’s overall score was above average. The overall coverage rate (4 cycles) was 84% from interviewed parents and 67.5% from SMC cards. More than 23% of children experienced at least one side effect with the most common being vomiting (72%). The population’s overall impression of the program was good at 85%. The trends SMC coverage showed a sinusoidal fluctuation from 2015 to 2021, 2016 to 2019 and 2020 to 2021. Conclusion: The coverage rate of SMC was high thus the program is well implemented.

Knowledge Regarding Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV among a Group of Adults in a Low Income Country

Introduction: Despite communication on Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), close to 5.9 million people didn’t know they were living with HIV. One of the modes of transmission of HIV is vertical transmission. It remains the principal way of transmission of HIV for children below 15 years, with over 90% of them being infected. In Cameroon, the mother and child transmission of HIV is still a problem with 5.5% of infection of exposed infant at the early infant diagnosis in 2019. Awareness on prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) is an important component for the fight against HIV. We therefore aimed at gauging the level of knowledge of a group of adult clients on HIV and PMTCT. Methodology: We conducted a cross sectional and analytical study at the Yaoundé Gyneco-Obstetric and Pediatric hospital for a period of one month. Were included, adults who visited the hospital for a free screening campaign on HIV. Data were collected using a questionnaire on their characteristics and knowledge of HIV and PMTCT. Data were entered using CSPro and analysed using IBM SPSS. Results: There was a gap in knowledge on HIV, considering satisfactory knowledge from 25 points and above, it was noted that 34.6% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. For PMTCT, knowledge was average with the majority scoring 10 points on 18. Considering satisfactory knowledge on PMTCT was from 10 and above, 35.9% of our respondents had a non-satisfactory knowledge. Female sex was associated with satisfactory knowledge for both HIV and PMTCT. Conclusion: Concerning PMTCT, the knowledge of the mode of transmission, Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for prevention to the babies or feedings recommendations on exposed HIV infants were poor. There is a gap in favor of women regarding knowledge between HIV and PMTCT. Therefore, men are highly encouraged to take part to health promotion activities on HIV and PMTCT.