Abstract:

Background: Sickle cell anaemia is a hereditary red blood cell disorder, it happens when a child receives two sickle cell genes one from each parent, approximately 300,000 children are born with sickle cell disease worldwide each year, with over 70% of all affected births occur in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is associated high morbidity and mortality among children in SSA. In SCA bacterial infection particularly those caused by encapsulated organisms are the common causes of mortality among children with sickle cell anaemia and penicillin v is used for preventing infection caused by pneumococcal bacteria in children with sickle cell anaemia so penicillin prophylaxis significantly reduces the incidence of infection with encapsulated organisms in particular streptococcus pneumoniae and lead to reduction of morbidity and mortality rate.

Objective: To determine the knowledge and attitude of parents on Penicillin V use as a means of prevention of infection among children under-five years with sickle cell anaemia attending at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC), Mwanza.

Methodology: Its cross-sectional survey study, which was conducted from September to December 2021 which recruit parents/guardians with children aged less than five years of age attending Bugando Medical Centre outpatient clinic and those admitted in the paediatric wards and meet the inclusion criteria was enrolled into the study and questionnaire was administered in English and Kiswahili languages, they was invited to participate and they was given questionnaire to read that focused on collecting information on their knowledge and attitude on penicillin v use as means of prevention of infection. The study was conducted among parents/guardians attending BMC, north-western Tanzania from September to December 2021 and data was recorded and analysed using a computer program SPSS version 20.

Results: The study involved 170 parents/guardians with children aged less than five years of age attending Bugando Medical Centre outpatient clinic and those admitted in the paediatric wards, with children median age of 34.08 months out of these 62.35% were males and 37.65% were females. Among the parents only 3.53% parents/guardians had not gone through primary level of education or it was incomplete and 38.82% had attended primary school, 52.35% had attended secondary school and 5.29% attended university and only 33.53% were not employed and 66.47% were employed. Out of 170 enrolled parents/guardian about 12.35% parents had poor knowledge on penicillin v use among children under five with sickle cell anemia and 70% parents/guardian reported to have moderate knowledge while about 17.65% reported to have good knowledge on penicillin v use among children under five with sickle cell anemia.
Out of 170 enrolled parents/guardian about 68,82% parents had poor attitude on penicillin v use among children under five with sickle cell anemia and 31.18% parents/guardian reported to have good attitude on penicillin v use among children under five with sickle cell anemia.

Conclusion: Generally, the study shows substantially large numbers of parents/guardians have a little knowledge and poor attitude on penicillin v use on bacterial infection among children under-five with SCA. The reported low knowledge, poor attitude together with other factors might contribute to poor adherence, late presentation to the hospital and needing longer periods of admission to the hospital.