Lintang Dian Saraswati

Malaria in Open and Closed Communities in Namrole, Buru Selatan District, Maluku Island, Indonesia

Malaria remains a public health problem in Buru Selatan District, an area with opened and closed communities. This study aimed to describe malaria prevalence and its related factors in opened and closed communities in Namrole, Buru Selatan District. This study was a cross sectional study to measure prevalence of malaria in open and close communities of Buru Selatan District. Study location was in Namrole Sub-District. Subject was selected by purposive sampling, consisted of 128 subjects (64 subjects from opened community and 64 subjects from closed community). Malaria was diagnosed by thin and thick blood smear. Data was presented as proportion. Statistical analysis used Chi-Square to analyse the data. Characteristics of subject (age, gender, occupation) were equal between malaria and non-malaria subjects, except for age in closed community. Prevalence of malaria in this study was 33.6% decrease from the prevalence a year earlier (35.5%). Malaria in closed community was higher than opened community and was clustered in forest. In general, malaria did not relate to behavior although taking medicine differs between malaria and non-malaria group. Malaria in closed community is higher than opened community, mostly asymptomatic, and clustered in forest. The closed community is an area with traditional life and lack of health facilities. This condition is a challenge in malaria elimination program.

The need of adequate information to achieve total compliance of mass drug administration in Pekalongan

World Health Organization (WHO) initiated The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) through mass drug administration (MDA). PEkalongan started MDA in 2011. Yet the LF prevalence in 2015 remained exceed the threshold (1%). This study aimed to describe the inhibiting factors related to the compliance of MDA in community level. This was a rapid survey with cross sectional approach. A two-stages random sampling was used in this study. In the first stage, 25 clusters were randomly selected from 27 villages with proportionate to population size (PPS) methods (C-Survey). In the second stage, 10 subjects were randomly selected from each cluster. Subjects consisted of 250 respondents from 25 selected clusters. Variables consisted of MDA coverage, practice of taking medication during MDA, enabling and inhibiting factors to MDA in community level. The results showed most respondents had poor knowledge on filariasis, which influence awareness of the disease. Health-illness perception, did not receive the drugs, lactation, side effect, and size of the drugs were dominant factors of non-compliance to MDA. MDA information and community empowerment were needed to improve MDA coverage. Further study to explore the appropriate model of socialization will support the success of MDA program