CHW &IPTp &Malaria in Pregnancy Bill Brieger | 05 Nov 2017 10:49 pm
Improving Early ANC Attendance and IPT Uptake through Community Health Volunteers
Community health workers are playing an increasing role in maternal health programming. Augustine Ngindu, Susan Ontiri, Gathari Ndirangu, Beth Barasa, Evans Nyapada, David Omoit, Johnstone Akatu, and Mildred Mudany of The Matewrnal and Child Survival Program, The Kenya Ministry of Health and Jhpiego share their experiences in Kenya at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Baltimore on 2017-11-06. If you are in Baltimore, hear more at Scientific Session 13. Below is an abstract of their presentation
Kenya adopted the use of intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine pyrimethamine in 1998 but the proportion of pregnant women receiving at least two doses (22% (2010) and 56% (2015) has remained below the national target of 80%. In 2015, the country adopted an IPTp3 indicator for monitoring IPTp uptake; that year, the proportion of women taking at least 3 doses was 38% (2015).
Some of the factors leading to low IPTp coverage include poor knowledge on the need for early antenatal care (ANC), distances to health facilities, sociocultural practices and a lack of financial resources. In 2012, community health volunteers (CHVs) were enlisted through a pilot program in one county to deliver messages aimed at increasing the proportion of women starting ANC ? 20 weeks of gestation and thus expand the proportion of women receiving IPTp early in the second trimester.
A community survey in 2013 showed an increase in IPTp2 from 22% in 2010 to 63%. The practice was considered a success story, and was subsequently replicated in 30 sub-counties, in 4 out of 14 malaria endemic counties. The rollout involved training of 9,042 CHVs, in 761 community units. Between 2015 and 2016, the CHVs reached 86,433 women with MiP messages. During this time, there was an average increase in IPTp1 from 51% to 68%, and IPTp2 increased from 42% to 55% (p? 0.001). This could be attributed to early ANC attendance, which increased from 32% to 48% in the same period.
The use of CHVs to sensitize pregnant women to start IPTp early in the second trimester and continue with scheduled ANC visits increases the probability that women will receive the recommended IPTp-SP doses. The rollout of the practice to other malaria endemic counties is likely to have contributed to increase in IPTp uptake in the four target counties.
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