Abstract
A retrospective study of children presenting with symptoms suggestive of malaria between 2006 and 2011 was carried out in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Sociodemographic data, clinical information and laboratory investigations were retrieved from the laboratory records of the medical microbiology department. Chi-square analysis was used to assess the prevalence of malaria in the different age groups and sexes. The results showed a 70% prevalence of malaria out of the 23698 patients reviewed. Malaria was significantly higher ( = 18.66, p = 6.76, p =0.0093) prevalence (72.70%) of malaria among children under 5 years and 593 (3.47%) patients had severe malaria (≥3+ parasitemia). Severe anaemia, fever and bronchopneumonia were mostly associated with severe malaria. There was an average prevalence of 70.61% from 2006 to 2011. The annual prevalence of malaria declined from 76.7% in 2009 to 60.6% in 2011. The study showed a high prevalence of malaria among the patients, with children under 5 years being the most significantly affected.
Highlights
Malaria is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. [1] In 2010 it accounted for 655,000 deaths all over the world
[1] It has an all year round transmission, Plasmodium falciparum is the predominate specie transmitted by the anopheles mosquitos. [1]There has been a 20% decline in under-five mortality due to malaria from 2010 to 2013.[1]. This decline could be attributed to the efforts of the National Malaria Control Strategic Plan (NMCSP) which include amongst others reducing malaria related mortality, reducing malaria parasite prevalence in children under age 5, increasing possession and use of insecticide treated nets (ITNS) and long lasting insecticides nets, introducing and scaling up indoor residual spraying (IRS), increasing the use of diagnostic tests for fever patients, improving efforts related to appropriate and timely treatment of malaria and increasing coverage of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy.[1]
According to the current Nigerian demographic and health survey 2013, malaria accounts for 20% under-five mortality.[1]
Summary
Malaria is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. [1] In 2010 it accounted for 655,000 deaths all over the world. [1]There has been a 20% decline in under-five mortality due to malaria from 2010 to 2013.[1] This decline could be attributed to the efforts of the National Malaria Control Strategic Plan (NMCSP) which include amongst others reducing malaria related mortality, reducing malaria parasite prevalence in children under age 5, increasing possession and use of insecticide treated nets (ITNS) and long lasting insecticides nets, introducing and scaling up indoor residual spraying (IRS), increasing the use of diagnostic tests for fever patients, improving efforts related to appropriate and timely treatment of malaria and increasing coverage of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy.[1] According to the current Nigerian demographic and health survey 2013, malaria accounts for 20% under-five mortality.[1] There are about 3.3 billion people at risk for malaria, with about 247 million people affected yearly resulting in a million death mostly in children under the age of 5 years [2] It accounts for about 50% of the out-patient hospital visits in endemic areas like Nigeria. There have been various reports of malaria among school age children, ranging from 11 – 26% prevalence especially among children between 8-16 years old malaria endemic countries [5,6,7]
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