Trends in treatment-seeking for fever in children under five years old in 151 countries from 1990 to 2020

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002134
• Publication Date: 2023-08-23T17:32:13Z
• Authors: Michele Nguyen; Paulina A. Dzianach; Paul E. C. W. Castle; Susan F. Rumisha; Jennifer A. Rozier; Joseph R. Harris; Harry S. Gibson; Katherine A. Twohig; Camilo A. Vargas-...; Donal Bisanzio; Ewan Cameron; Daniel J. Weiss; Samir Bhatt; Peter W. Gething; Katherine E. Battle
• Keywords: 1. No poverty; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; 3. Good health; Research Article

Access to medical treatment for fever is essential prevent morbidity and mortality in individuals transmission of communicable febrile illness communities. Quantification the rates at which accessed critical health system planning a prerequisite disease burden estimates. In this study, national data on proportion children under five years old with who were taken collected from all available countries Africa, Latin America, Asia (n = 91). We used generalised additive mixed models estimate 30-year trends treatment-seeking across majority these regions 151). Our results show that proportions brought increased steadily over last 30 years, greatest increases occurring areas where had originally been lowest, includes America Caribbean, North Africa Middle East (51 50% increase, respectively), Sub-Saharan (23% increase). Overall, aggregated population-weighted any type facility rose 61% (59-64 95% CI) 1990 71% (69-72 2020. The overall average fraction public sector was largely unchanged during study period: 49% (42-58 sought care facilities 47% (44-52 findings indicate improvements access have made they most needed, but despite rapid initial gains, progress can plateau without substantial investment. 2020 there remained significant gaps utilisation must be factored when developing control strategies deriving