Evaluation of Severity of Malaria Infection and Effect of Anti-malaria Drugs on Gender Differences Using Blood Cell Lines Parameters

Abstract

Malaria is a serious public health problem in most countries of the tropics. In Nigeria about 96 million people are exposed to malaria, and out of these 64 million people get infected and almost 300,000 deaths are being reported annually in the general population. The aim of the study therefore is to determine severity and prevalence of malaria infection and effect of anti-malaria drugs on gender differences causing changes in the blood cell lines. 202 confirmed malaria infected patients were recruited for the study between the ages of 15 – 64 years of both sexes at the general outpatient clinic of the Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. 4ml of blood sample was collected twice from the same patient before and after taking anti-malaria drug into di-potassium ethylenediaminetetracetic acid vaccutainer bottles for blood cell lines analysis. Malaria parasite detection, malaria parasite count and malaria parasite species identification were also carried out. All the subjects were infected with Plasmodium falciparum specie; out of the 202 malaria infected patients 129(63.9%) were males and 73(36.1%) were females. Mean± SD of MPC, MPV, WBC, absolute neutrophil in male was significantly (P<0.05) higher compared to female in pre and post anti- malaria drug treatment. Plasmodium falciparum is the most prevalent malaria specie in the study area. Severity and prevalence of malaria infection is more in male compared to female this might be as a result of different exposure to malaria vector and immunity to parasitic infection among the gender.