Improved Prescription of Intermittent Preventive Therapy for Malaria in Pregnancy (IPTp) among doctors practicing in 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Yaba Lagos, Nigeria

Malaria infestation in pregnancy is a major public health concern in Nigeria . Intermittent preventive therapy for malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) is a key recommendation in the National guideline for malaria control in Nigeria. Previous data from this hospital reported a very low implementation of this guideline . Scale up of services and training were thereafter implemented. This study assessed the current level of prescription of intermittent preventive therapy with Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine for pregnant women among doctors practicing in the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Yaba Lagos, Nigeria. This was a retrospective study of records of pregnant women seen at antenatal clinic of 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Yaba Lagos, Nigeria from January, 2013 to December, 2013. Information on antenatal attendance and IPTp prescription extracted and analysis was done using EPI INFO 2002. A total of 684 case notes were retrieved from the antenatal clinic record. A good proportion of the women (82.1%) registered for antenatal clinic within the first and second trimesters of pregnancy while 75.5% of the doctors prescribed intermittent preventive therapy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. This was an improvement on previous IPTp prescription data (3.7%). None of the doctors prescribed weekly pyrimethamine. This study shows good implementation and adoption of the national malaria prevention guidelines by doctors practicing at 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Yaba Lagos, Nigeria. The malaria programme should ensure education of all health workers in both public and private health facilities on prevention guidelines to increase coverage .Keywords: National guidelines, Intermittent Preventive therapy, Malaria in pregnancy, Nigeria