Control of Pregnancy Associated Malaria With Intermittent Preventive Treatment
Control of Pregnancy Associated Malaria With Intermittent Preventive Treatment
NCT ID: NCT00258024 Phase: NA Status: COMPLETED Enrollment: 420 Completion: 2007-10
Conditions
Anaemia, Malaria
Interventions
IPT-sulphadoxinepyrimethamine
Summary
Malaria is one of the major causes of illness and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, malaria is the most important cause of morbidity and accounts for about 40% of outpatient contacts. Chemoprophylaxis and insecticide-impregnated bed nets are used for malaria control in pregnancy.Chloroquine is administered within the ANC package at health facilities in Ghana. However, many pregnant women in rural,low-income communities do not report for ANC or report late thereby increasing their risk of morbidity and mortality. Reasons for this include inaccessibility and high cost. As the gap between urban and rural health care and socioeconomic circumstances increase, malaria control remains the major challenge of the health sector. A facility-based intervention alone is not sufficient to have a significant or sustained impact on malaria control in pregnancy. Alternative strategies are needed for the delivery of malaria interventions to pregnant women in rural areas in Ghana. The overall objective of this study is to develop alternative strategies for community involvement for delivery of malaria interventions to pregnant women in rural Ghana. The project will be conducted in the Afigya Sekyere district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted with pregnant women and community members focusing on local knowledge on control of malaria in pregnancy and factors influencing utilization of antenatal services. Women in their first and second pregnancies who are permanently resident in the study area will be included in the study using IPT with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). The study population will be randomized to:Group 1 will receive clinic-supervised IPT-SP and daily folate/iron supplementation and Group 2 will access IPT-SP with daily folate/iron supplementation from trained traditional birth attendants (TBA). Midwives and TBAs will be trained in preparing thick blood smears and placenta biopsies for parasitological examin
Primary Outcome
Birth weight