Caretakers’ self adherence toartemisinin lumefantrine inNyando district, Kenya

Abstract

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs)are effective and tolerant. However, the contin-uous development of Plasmodiumstrainsresistance to cost effective monotherapiessuch as chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, remains the greatest setbackto the global fight against malaria. Recentstudies indicate that Plasmodiumparasitesare already becoming resistance to ACTs. Anumber of factors such as poor adherence cancause drug failure. Non-adherence is one ofthe major challenges facing optimal use ofACTs in real life settings. The objective of thisstudy was to describe and identify factors asso-ciated with non-adherence to artemisininlumefantrine (AL) among malaria-ailing care-takers seen in Nyando district hospital whoalso had children under the age of five ailingfrom malaria. From our study we concludedthat the consents, follow-ups, strict adherenceto the Kenya National Strategy for Control andTreatment of Malaria guidelines and availabil-ity of AL during the study may have influencedthe observed high adherence rates. Therefore,it is critical to adequately stock health facili-ties with AL to enhance adherence. Morespecifically, healthcare providers need to edu-cate malaria-ailing caretakers on the AL regi-men as well as its possible side effects to pro-mote adherence to the antimalarial at a house-hold level.