Sven G. Hinderaker

Care Seeking and Management of Common Childhood Illnesses in Tanzania: Questioning the Quality of Primary Care Services Sven G. Hinderaker

Tanzania has an extensive network of primary health care clinics. Conditions that account for the majority of child deaths in Tanzania i.e. malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea, can be cured at such clinics, if they provided quality care and are properly utilized by the intended populations. However, studies are reporting poor quality of services at most of these clinics, resulting into some care-seeking to bypass them while seeking child care. The current study sought to investigate care seeking behaviors and management of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea for underfive children at such clinics, and explore care seekers experiences in relation to the reported deficiencies. Our findings revealed significant disappointments among caretakers with regard to the quality of services offered at primary care clinics in Tanzania. The study identified mismanagements of sick children at this level of care, including total lack of clinical examinations, wrong prescriptions, inadequate drug dosages etc. some of which resulted into children presenting to higher level hospitals with severe disease and others die