2.2.4 Health seeking behaviour
In
Nigeria, available information indicates that health education and
information communication provided to the community has had limited
impact on behavioral changes and hence disease prevention and control.
(Mboera et al., 2004). This was also supported by a study which was done
by (Al-Taiar et al., 2009) which found out that despite the health
education that was associated with the research in the campus community
in the North, 30% of the nets that were distributed for free were still
unused after the study. This shows how difficult it is to impact on
human behavior, and supports the idea that a careful and sustained
health education program must accompany any ITN intervention (Lafferty,
2009). Hence the need for the seroprevalence study of students positive
and those negative for malaria and to create awareness to the campus
community on malaria eradication.
Health education communication is
one of the key components in malaria control and prevention (Mboera et
al., 2004). Serious obstacles in most disease control strategies include
lack of effective health information, education, and communication
programs. Community and health providers need to understand the problem
in all its relevant aspects, as well as be aware of the options
available for improvement (Mboera et al., 2004).This means it is
important for health providers and communities to appreciate the
epidemiologic and technical dimensions of the malaria problem as well as
the factors that affect whether particular control options was
feasible, technically possible, socially acceptable, environmentally
friendly, and politically advantageous. For individuals student,
effective health communication can help raise awareness of health risks
and solutions to provide the motivation and skill needed to reduce these
risks, help them find support from other people in similar situations.
2.2.5 Socio-economic factors
Socioeconomic
conditions of the community have direct bearing on the problem of
malaria. Ignorance and impoverished conditions of students contribute in
creating source and spread of malaria and hinder disease control
strategy (Yadav et al., 2014). This was also evidenced by Filmer, 2002
that high costs of malaria treatment may lead to delays in treatment
seeking behavior, whereby he found that the poorest groups in a society
did not seek care as much as the non-poor, and did so at lower level
public facilities. According to (Makundi et al., 2007) it was reported
that the burden of malaria is greatest among poor people (low status
students), imposing significant direct and indirect costs on individuals
into a vicious circle of disease and poverty.
2.2.6 Environmental factors/climate
Malaria
is governed by a large number of environmental factors, which affect
its distribution, seasonality and transmission intensity (Snow et al.,
1999). Climate and environmental conditions greatly affect the
transmission and incidence of malaria, by influencing primarily the
abundance and survival of vectors and parasites, and also exposure of
humans and other hosts (Lafferty, 2009). The most important
environmental factors for malaria transmission have to do with
conditions for Anopheles mosquito breeding and survival – water in which
they can breed, and minimum temperatures and humidity to allow them to
survive long enough for the vector stage of the parasite‘s life cycle to
be completed – usually about ten days (Yadav et al., 2014). These
factors are influenced by climate, as well as by topography and soil
conditions, drainage, vegetation cover, land use and water – all of
which vary greatly depending on local conditions (Snow et al., 2005). As
such, changes in climate and land use such as water management,
agriculture, urbanization, and deforestation can lead to significant
increases or decreases in malaria transmission, depending on local
contexts (Snow et al., 2005). Some agricultural practices facilitate the
spread of vector-borne diseases (Desai et al., 2008). Also, the
presence of cattle in marshy areas results in the creation of hoof
prints that potentially offer ideal conditions for mosquito breeding
(Mboera et al., 2004). Within man-made malaria, excluding the migration
of non-immunes to endemic areas, the most important impacts on
transmission are probably brought about by water resource development
and land use change. Human modification to the environment also can
create larval development sites and malaria (Desai et al., 2008).
