IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v67y2008i2p292-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

District-based malaria epidemic early warning systems in East Africa: Perceptions of acceptability and usefulness among key staff at health facility, district and central levels

Author

Listed:
  • Jones, Caroline
  • Abeku, Tarekegn A.
  • Rapuoda, Beth
  • Okia, Michael
  • Cox, Jonathan

Abstract

Malaria epidemics represent a significant public health problem in the highlands of Africa. Many of these epidemics occur in low resource settings, where the development of an effective system for malaria surveillance has been a key challenge. Between 2001 and 2006, the Highland Malaria Project (HIMAL) established a programme to develop and test a district-based surveillance system for the early detection and control of malaria epidemics in four pilot districts in Kenya and Uganda. An innovative feature of the programme was the devolution of responsibility for the detection of epidemics from the central Ministry of Health to District Health Management Teams. The implementation of the programme offered the opportunity to test both the technical aspects of the system and to examine the practical issues relating to the operation of the programme in the context of the existing health system. To investigate the attitude of key staff towards the programme, and their perceptions of its impact on their working practices, interviews were carried out among 52 health staff at district level and in the Ministries of Health in Kenya and Uganda. The transfer of responsibility for the early detection of epidemics to the districts had resulted in perceptions of individual empowerment among district-based staff. This, together with improved support supervision, was a key factor in sustaining motivation and improved surveillance. The enhanced support supervision also produced capacity benefits that extended beyond improved malaria surveillance. However, these improvements occurred in the context of increased logistical support (the provision of transport, fuel and travel allowances) which the participants believed was essential to the functioning of an effective system. With this proviso, the district-based malaria early warning system was perceived to be manageable, effective and sustainable in the context of the current health system.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Caroline & Abeku, Tarekegn A. & Rapuoda, Beth & Okia, Michael & Cox, Jonathan, 2008. "District-based malaria epidemic early warning systems in East Africa: Perceptions of acceptability and usefulness among key staff at health facility, district and central levels," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 292-300, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:2:p:292-300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00124-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lindelow, Magnus & Serneels, Pieter, 2006. "The performance of health workers in Ethiopia: Results from qualitative research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2225-2235, May.
    2. Franco, Lynne Miller & Bennett, Sara & Kanfer, Ruth, 2002. "Health sector reform and public sector health worker motivation: a conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 1255-1266, April.
    3. McPake, Barbara & Asiimwe, Delius & Mwesigye, Francis & Ofumbi, Mathias & Ortenblad, Lisbeth & Streefland, Pieter & Turinde, Asaph, 1999. "Informal economic activities of public health workers in Uganda: implications for quality and accessibility of care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 849-865, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Munir Ahmad & Nadeem Akhtar & Gul Jabeen & Muhammad Irfan & Muhammad Khalid Anser & Haitao Wu & Cem Işık, 2021. "Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-28, June.
    2. Madon, Shirin & Amaguru, Jackline Olanya & Malecela, Mwele Ntuli & Michael, Edwin, 2014. "Can mobile phones help control neglected tropical diseases? Experiences from Tanzania," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 103-110.
    3. Shirin Madon & Jackline Olanya Amaguru & Mwele Ntuli Malecela & Edwin Michael, 2014. "Can mobile phones help control neglected tropical diseases?: experiences from Tanzania," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56058, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Halliday, Katherine E. & Okello, George & Turner, Elizabeth L. & Njagi, Kiambo & Mcharo, Carlos & Kengo, Juddy & Allen, Elizabeth & Dubeck, Margaret M. & Jukes, Matthew C.H. & Brooker, Simon J., 2014. "Impact of intermittent screening and treatment for malaria among school children in Kenya : a cluster randomized trial," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6791, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lewis, Maureen & Pettersson, Gunilla, 2009. "Governance in health care delivery : raising performance," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5074, The World Bank.
    2. Lindelow, Magnus & Serneels, Pieter, 2006. "The performance of health workers in Ethiopia: Results from qualitative research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2225-2235, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:2:p:292-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.