Malaria control at the district level in Africa: the case of the muheza district in northeastern Tanzania.

An assessment was done in Tanzania to determine the extent to which the primary health care services have contributed to reducing the burden of malaria since the system was initiated in the 1980s. Seven descriptive processes and outcome indicators of effectiveness were used: changes of malaria transmission and incidence over time; use of facility-based care services for malaria; patients' access to professional advice; the trend of treatment failure over time of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and chloroquine; survival rates of severe cases at the district hospital; a district malaria control strategy; number of malaria specific training for care providers; and the number of activities carried out on mosquito control measures. The data were collected from 1996 to 2003 in the Muheza district northeastern Tanzania.