Introduction:
Ensuring treatment of the diseases is often limited to prescription only. This can be hampered due to a lack of patients’ understanding to follow appropriate dosage and drug regimen.
Method:
In this study, a total of 33 Plasmodium vivax infected patients were enrolled from three endemic sub-districts of Bandarban district: Alikadam, Lama and Thanchi and Chakaria sub-districts of Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh. All participants or his/her caregiver was interviewed on day - 15. Two focus group discussions (FGD) were also conducted to understand their experience of malaria drug compliance.
Result:
The level of probable adherence (PA) to P.vivax malaria medication was found 84.9% during in depth interview. However, the compliance was found less, 61.5% in the FGDs. In terms of age and sex, children aged 11-17 years had significantly less PA in comparison with the adults (57.1% vs. 92.3%; p=0.02). However, the level of PA between male and female were not statistically significant (89.3% vs. 60.0%; p=0.10). Although all the participants received instruction on how long and when to take medicine from the facility providers, it was also evident that, among the non-adhere (NA) participants, 100% stopped taking medicine as they were feeling well or recovered from the illness. Among the NA participants, 20% had sought the initial treatment elsewhere before they came to the NMEP service providers and 60.0% of participants waited for more than 24 hours after becoming sick. The main reason for the delay was the distance of the treatment facility/health complex from the village (40.0%).
Conclusion:
Regular monitoring of adherence is of utmost importance for progress in malaria elimination otherwise drug resistance may emerge and revert the accomplishment made so far. Initiatives should also be taken by the NMEP to minimize the delay in seeking treatment and to encourage policy to improve practice.