Maternal health and malaria in the 2024 MDHS

Antenatal care

For the most recent birth among surveyed women aged 15 to 49, 95 percent in Dzaleka received antenatal care from a skilled provider. Seventy-eight percent completed four or more visits, compared with 62 percent elsewhere in Malawi. The report estimated that 91 percent of the most recent live births in Dzaleka were protected against neonatal tetanus, similar to the national comparison of 89 percent.

Delivery

Among live births in the two years before the survey, 98 percent in Dzaleka occurred in a health facility and 99 percent were assisted by a skilled provider. Thirteen percent were delivered by caesarean section. The comparison estimates elsewhere in Malawi were 97, 96 and 12 percent respectively.

These high coverage estimates describe contact with services. They do not measure medicine stocks, staffing, waiting times, referral capacity or quality of care.

Mosquito nets

Thirty-nine percent of Dzaleka households owned at least one insecticide-treated net (ITN), with an average of 0.6 ITNs per household. Only 13 percent had at least one ITN for every two people who stayed in the household the preceding night, compared with 26 percent elsewhere in Malawi.

Among people in the sampled households, 32 percent of children under five and 44 percent of pregnant women had slept under an ITN the previous night.

Prevention during pregnancy

Among women with a live birth in the preceding two years, 85 percent in Dzaleka received at least one dose of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine/Fansidar for intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy, compared with 92 percent elsewhere. Dzaleka’s estimates were higher for repeat doses: 84 percent received at least two doses and 76 percent at least three, compared with 82 and 62 percent respectively.

Malaria testing

Rapid diagnostic testing found malaria in 0.4 percent of sampled Dzaleka children under five, compared with 23 percent elsewhere in Malawi. This is a point-in-time survey result influenced by geography, season, exposure and prevention. It should not be read as proof that malaria risk is absent or that treatment and prevention services are unnecessary.