Research Article Open Access Health Care: Current Reviews H e a l t h C a r e : C u r r e n t R e v i e w s ISSN: 2375-4273 Nkulikwa et al., Health Care Current Reviews 2018, 6:3 DOI: 10.4172/2375-4273.1000229 Volume 6 • Issue 3 • 1000229 Health Care Current Reviews, an open access journal ISSN:2375-4273 Abstract Despite the efforts to minimize malaria infection in Tanzania, its prevalence persists. To what factors is the persistence be attributed? Does people’s lack of knowledge, impact negatively on their receptivity of malarial preventive and control strategies? This paper examines knowledge about control strategies of malaria, both curative and preventive, among local native of Lindi Urban district, in Tanzania, with the specifc objectives to determine people’s knowledge about malaria control strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 356 respondents. Focus group discussion were employed in eliciting qualitative information whereas a structured questionnaire was utilized to collect quantitative data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis of these data. Descriptive analyses involved computation of frequency and percentages. Inferential measures were determined through Chi-square test. Knowledge of participants was signifcantly associated (P<0.05) with educational level, location of respondents, marital status and occupation. As such, knowledge about malaria control strategies in the study district was much different between respondents who had different socio-economic factors. However, there was insignifcant association (P>0.05) between malarial knowledge, sex, age of respondents and total number of members per household. Conclusively, this paper found that participants had information about malaria preventive strategies; they hardly had knowledge about the cause of malaria, importance of using mosquito nets consistently in protecting themselves from disease, and had no knowledge about how to integrate as well as implement various malaria preventative measures. Additionally, some misconceptions among respondents were discerned regarding cure of malaria, symptoms, and the effectiveness of bed nets. Knowledge of Communities about Malaria Control Strategies in Lindi Urban District, Tanzania Nkulikwa ZA*, Malago JJ and William GW College of Social and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogor, Tanzania *Corresponding author: Nkulikwa ZA, College of Social and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogor, Tanzania, Tel: +255767485156; E-mail: nkulikwa@gmail.com Received September 12, 2018; Accepted October 03, 2018; Published October 10, 2018 Citation: Nkulikwa ZA, Malago JJ, William GW (2018) Knowledge of Communities about Malaria Control Strategies in Lindi Urban District, Tanzania. Health Care Current Reviews 6: 229. doi: 10.4172/2375-4273.1000229 Copyright: © 2018 Nkulikwa ZA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Because of the severity, and difculty caused by malaria to Africans, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) initiated roll back malaria for Africa in 1998 with the goal to eradicate or ease the intensity of morbidity and mortality attributed to malaria. In addition, in 2000 the United Nations, at its millennium conference in New York, determined that morbidity and mortality vary directly as poverty. Terefore, reduction of morbidity and mortality is decreasing poverty. Te above information, the government of Tanzania developed a malaria strategic plan, which is based on curative and preventive measures including supporting strategies in the relentless and continuous fght against the disease. Tese strategies involve availability and use of mosquito nets, in door residual spraying of dwellings with insecticides, the prophylactic use of antimalarial drugs by pregnant women, diagnostic testing for measuring malaria, and the public use of antimalarial drugs. Based on Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey (TDHS-MIS), which was conducted between 2015 and 2016, 93% of population live in environment; which favour breeding of malaria vectors, and hence are at risk. Te frequency of malaria occurrence in Tanzania is diferent from one region to another, with the highest in Western Lake areas and Southern zone areas while it is lowest in Northern, Central, and South West areas of Tanzania. Keywords: Knowledge; Malaria control strategies; Lindi district Introduction Malaria is persistently one of primal causes of morbidity and mortality in tropical and subtropical regions of the earth. It is more debilitating and corrosive to most communities in sub-Saharan Africa; because of its favourable environmental conditions for the development of mosquitoes, which is the vector of the disease, being transmitted by a mosquito called Anopheles. Although the parasite was discovered at least 137 years ago (in 1880), malaria has been a formidable challenge that adversely affect health and well-being of most of Africans WHO and UNICEF (2005) [1]. It has been estimated that one person in Africa dies of malaria in every ten seconds, claiming 91% of a million lives annually while 300 million people are infected with the disease at any one time and a third of them develop clinical complications (WHO, 2003, 2005, 2008). In 2016, an estimate of 2018 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide. Fifteen countries, which are in sub- Saharan Africa, accounted for 80% of global deaths caused by this disease [2]. According to malaria was a global challenge in mid-20 th century [3]. Later, in most parts of this earth malaria was eradicated, but, now at least 40% of humankind, particularly, those who reside in developing countries are at a risk of malaria infection because of the widespread of the disease in tropical and Subtropical regions. Moreover, Kinung argues that given that the epidemiology of malaria relies on environmental factors and weather elements such as temperature, humidity and rainfall. Global warming may cause the resurgence of malaria in population where either it was eliminated or was never experienced before. Additionally, relate epidemiology of malaria to environment that favours the infestation of mosquitoes, and that the spread or its control correlates to demographic characteristics and socio-economic factors like education level, knowledge about malaria and preventive measures [4].