Abstract
BackgroundLand use change has increasingly been expanding throughout the world in the past decades. It can have profound effects on the spatial and temporal distribution of vector borne diseases like malaria through ecological and habitat change. Understanding malaria disease occurrence and the impact of prevention interventions under this intense environmental modification is important for effective and efficient malaria control strategy.MethodsA descriptive ecological study was conducted by reviewing health service records at Abobo district health office. The records were reviewed to extract data on malaria morbidity, mortality, and prevention and control methods. Moreover, Meteorological data were obtained from Gambella region Meteorology Service Center and National Meteorology Authority head office. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis techniques were used to analyze the data.ResultsFor the twelve-year time period, the mean annual total malaria case count in the district was 7369.58. The peak monthly malaria incidence was about 57 cases per 1000 people. Only in 2009 and 2015 that zero death due to malaria was recorded over the past 12 years. Fluctuating pattern of impatient malaria cases occurrence was seen over the past twelve years with an average number of 225.5 inpatient cases. The data showed that there is a high burden of malaria in the district. Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) was a predominant parasite species in the district with the maximum percentage of about 90. There was no statistically significant association between season and total malaria case number (F3,8: 1.982, P:0.195). However, the inter-annual total case count difference was statistically significant (F11,132: 36.305, p < 0001). Total malaria case count had shown two months lagged carry on effect. Moreover, 3 months lagged humidity had significant positive effect on total malaria cases. Malaria prevention interventions and meteorological factors showed statistically significant association with total malaria cases.ConclusionMalaria was and will remain to be a major public health problem in the area. The social and economic impact of the disease on the local community is clearly pronounced as it is the leading cause of health facility visit and admission including the mortality associated with it. Scale up of effective interventions is quite important. Continuous monitoring of the performance of the vector control tools needs to be done.
Highlights
Land use change has increasingly been expanding throughout the world in the past decades
Total malaria case count had shown two months lagged carry on effect
The reduction in the burden of malaria during the past four years may be attributed to the scale-up of effective interventions at the national and local levels. This is consistent with the national report of reduction of malaria burden throughout the country in the past few years [30]. 36% mean annual positivity rate of malaria was observed which is similar to the findings reported from Adi Arkay (36.1%) and Kola Diba (39.6%) [14, 31] but much higher than the malaria positivity rate reported from Ataye (8.4%) and Wolkite (8.56%) [32, 33]
Summary
Land use change has increasingly been expanding throughout the world in the past decades. It can have profound effects on the spatial and temporal distribution of vector borne diseases like malaria through ecologi‐ cal and habitat change. The reduction in malaria morbidity for the period 2015– 2017 did not show significant progress though there were an estimated 20 million fewer malaria cases in 2017 compared to the number of cases in 2010[5]. An estimated 229 million malaria cases occurred in 87 malaria endemic countries in 2019 with 9 million malaria case reduction compared to the number of malaria cases in 2000 [7]
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