Acceptability of intermittent preventive treatment for childhood malaria within the health system and the community in Benin: players and strategies

Intermittent Preventive Treatment of infants (IPTi) is a new malaria control intervention recently recommended by WHO for implementation in Africa. It consists in the administration of a long-lasting anti-malaria drug to infants concomitantly to their routine immunization. To evaluate IPTi acceptability, a qualitative research was conducted among health workers and community members in two districts in Benin after one year of pilot implementation. Results showed that the majority of respondents recognize IPTi as a malaria control intervention. Adhesion to IPTi seems to be associated with perceptions of a decrease of malaria cases, and of post-vaccinal fever, as well as its gratuitousness. Although the IPTi is not an anti-pyretic this misperception is common, and probably due to the fact that populations are told to identify all fever cases as malaria. Acceptability behaviors result from a complex rationality linked to social and personal factors. Adapted from the source document.