Comparison of Health Service Utilization for Febrile Children Before and After Introduction of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests and Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapy in Rural Papua New Guinea

摘要

BackgroundIn Papua New Guinea (PNG), a malaria treatment policy using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) plus artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) was widely introduced to rural communities in 2012. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the effect of this RDT/ACT introduction to a rural PNG population on health service utilization and to compare factors associated with health service utilization before and after the RDT/ACT introduction.