Abstract
BackgroundAlthough much progress has been made in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality worldwide in the last decade, nationally malaria remains the third leading cause of death and still considered a major public health problem. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess malaria as a public health problem in and around the sugar cane plantation area of Arjo Didhessa sugar factory, Western Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study supplemented with clinical retrospective data, which included 452 study subjects was recruited and the study period was extended from May 2016 up to November of 2017. A standardized questionnaire was used to assess malaria risk factors and blood samples were received from all study participants and further subjected to Giemsa staining for determination of malaria prevalence. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 20. Malaria risk factors were identified by multivariate logistic regression at a significance level of P < 0.05.ResultsThe overall malaria prevalence was 3.1%; Plasmodium vivax is the main type of malaria parasite. Overnight outdoor sleeping and improper utilization of mosquito bed nets were found to be statistically significant as malaria risk factors in the community. In the retrospective studies of five years, the peak malaria cases (13.84%) were reported in 2013 and the lowest cases (1.24%) in 2017.ConclusionsThe figure for malaria witnessed in this area remains higher than the observed national malaria prevalence indicating malaria remains a public health problem. Therefore, we suggest the factory administrators and health care professionals work more on raising awareness to avoid night outdoor sleeping and promote frequent and appropriate utilization of insecticide-treated nets in line with regular indoor residual spraying.
Highlights
Much progress has been made in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality worldwide in the last decade, nationally malaria remains the third leading cause of death and still considered a major public health problem
Malaria is a haemoparasitic disease caused by obligate intracellular protozoan parasites of plasmodium species which are transmitted by infected female anopheline mosquito
Among the five types of plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum are widely distributed in Ethiopia and worldwide [1]
Summary
Much progress has been made in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality worldwide in the last decade, nationally malaria remains the third leading cause of death and still considered a major public health problem. Among the five types of plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum are widely distributed in Ethiopia and worldwide [1]. Irrespective of the promising strives made so far, to reduce malaria-related mortality and morbidity, malaria is the third leading cause of mortality next to HIV/AIDS and TB among infectious diseases. Malaria is considered one of the still existing health threats causing a considerable amount of mortality, morbidity and economic burden affecting all parts of the sub-Saharan African countries in which the problem is aggravated [2]. The success to tackle the disease was lowered during the years
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