Radio campaigns and Malaria prevention in the Buea Health Area

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction

Radio stations have as objectives three things which are; to inform, to educate and to entertain. One of the educative functions is through disease prevention campaigns that maybe held or organized by the Ministry of health or other health organizations that may not be affiliated to the government. This research is titled “Radio campaigns and Malaria prevention in the Buea Health Area” and some of its objectives are to examine the extent to which malaria prevention campaigns over radio stations are effective in the Buea health area and to see how often radio stations are involved in malaria prevention campaign.

These radio campaigns are to raise awareness in the Buea Health Area about malaria and to educate and motivate them to take action to prevent the disease and control its risk factors. Through these campaigns over radio, the population of the Buea Health Area is educated on the signs and symptoms of malaria and the importance of preventing malaria related to death.

1.1 Background to the study.

Malaria is a serious disease that spreads when an infected mosquito bites a human. Tiny parasites can infect mosquitoes. When it bites, the mosquito injects malaria parasites into the person’s bloodstream. If it isn’t treated, malaria can cause severe health problems such as seizures, brain damage, trouble breathing, organ failure and death. Hence, it is still an important public health threat in Buea health area with the population exposed to the risk of transmission.

Although significant progress has been made in the recent past, the disease remains prevalent. Malaria and many other medical problems and diseases have an “awareness campaign” or “health education campaign” associated with them. The goal of such a campaign is to make people conscious of the impact of diseases and to provide them information about the disease if they want to learn more about it. Various malaria prevention campaigns have taken the goal of eradicating both the risk of transmission and the disease itself.

In such campaigns, the organizers which are health personnel or persons who have a broad knowledge and mastery of the subject matter use the conventional media (radio and television) since promoting and preventing the spread of dangerous health risks is an integral communication function in modern society. However, since in the Buea health area malaria parasite transmission is seasonal and sometimes inconsistent stability of health vary due to frequent contacting of disease, the treatment of malaria and case management are undertaken regularly to improve the management of malaria cases and tracking of resistance.

All these efforts, if well-coordinated, could further improve malaria control and prevention in the Buea health area. Although there have been several studies on malaria epidemiology, case management, parasite prevalence, drug resistance, role in malaria parasite transmission little has been done to assess the impact of control interventions on disease transmission. The objective of the present study is to examine the extent to which malaria prevention campaign over radio stations have been effective in order to better appraise the complexity of the malaria situation and prevention methods so as to guide efforts towards the campaign of malaria prevention over radio in the Buea health area.

Malaria burden is most entrenched among the physically inaccessible communities within the Buea health area who often lack adequate knowledge about the cause, consequences and capacity to afford treatment and adopt preventive measures. Added to the affordability and behavioral issues, are the demographic and gender dimensions which are usually less frequently talked about. This study already is compelling evidence regarding the fact that people within the Buea health area are still suffering from malaria despite the demonstrated benefits of preventive measures over radio.

The use of antimalarial drugs and insecticide treated bed nets remains uncertain, while the national and international alliances are developing strategies to increase the affordable provision of these services among the people within the Buea health area. The efficacy and success of these efforts will ultimately depend on their adequate utilization which is largely reliant on the people’s awareness of the challenges and knowledge of prevention. Little or Lack of knowledge and awareness regarding a disease prevention is a major drawback of public health challenge.

Radio campaigns have been used for sensitization among the population of the Buea health area on the benefits of regular consummation of antimalarial drugs and use of insecticide treated bed nets. However, not much is known to evaluate the effectiveness of the malaria prevention campaigns over radio and as a guide, we will be looking at a number of radio stations like Mediafrique, Dream FM and CBS radio.
1.2 Statement of the problem.