Over diagnosis of malaria among the health services providers in hodeida-Yemen

Abstract EN

Over diagnosis or misdiagnosis of malaria has many negative consequences on society’s health.

This qualitative study about health service providers and malaria over diagnosis performed in Hodeida, the most affected town in Yemen, aimed to determine if health service providers are aware of the problem.

Health service providers included doctors working in hospitals, centers, or private clinics; medical assistants working in clinics, laboratories involved in diagnosing and treating malaria; and pharmacists prescribing and selling malaria treatment drugs, all of whom are officially registered in the health office.

The study sample was obtained from the 2006 registration records by choosing every other person from the list.

Half of the registered health service providers were from agencies in rural area and the other half was from urban areas.

The stratified sample received an in depth interview by investigators and the data were analyzed using Epi Info software, version 6.3.

The results indicated that 59 % of physicians, 59% of laboratory technicians, 75 % of pharmacists, and 50 % of nurses think that malaria is misdiagnosed.

Nurses were least concerned about misdiagnosis, followed by physicians and laboratory technicians, and pharmacists were the most concerned.

On the other hand, 56 % of physicians, 43% of nurses, 41 % of laboratory technicians, and 58 % of pharmacists think that malaria is over diagnosed.

All providers agreed that both laboratory technicians and physicians over diagnose malaria.

A large proportion of laboratory technicians (39 %) acknowledge primary responsibility for the problem, whereas only a small proportion of physicians (24 %) acknowledge secondary responsibility.