Abstract
BackgroundSaudi Arabia and Yemen are the only two countries in the Arabian Peninsula that are yet to achieve malaria elimination. Over the past two decades, the malaria control programme in Saudi Arabia has successfully reduced the annual number of malaria cases, with the lowest incidence rate across the country reported in 2014. This study aims to investigate the distribution of residual malaria in Jazan region and to identify potential climatic drivers of autochthonous malaria cases in the region.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out from 1 April 2018 to 31 January 2019 in Jazan region, southwestern Saudi Arabia, which targeted febrile individuals attending hospitals and primary healthcare centres. Participants’ demographic data were collected, including age, gender, nationality, and residence. Moreover, association of climatic variables with the monthly autochthonous malaria cases reported during the period of 2010–2017 was retrospectively analysed.ResultsA total of 1124 febrile subjects were found to be positive for malaria during the study period. Among them, 94.3 and 5.7% were infected with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, respectively. In general, subjects aged 18–30 years and those aged over 50 years had the highest (42.7%) and lowest (5.9%) percentages of malaria cases. Similarly, the percentage of malaria-positive cases was higher among males than females (86.2 vs 13.8%), among non-Saudi compared to Saudi subjects (70.6 vs 29.4%), and among patients residing in rural rather than in urban areas (89.8 vs 10.2%). A total of 407 autochthonous malaria cases were reported in Jazan region between 2010 and 2017. Results of zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis showed that monthly average temperature and relative humidity were the significant climatic determinants of autochthonous malaria in the region.ConclusionMalaria remains a public health problem in most governorates of Jazan region. The identification and monitoring of malaria transmission hotspots and predictors would enable control efforts to be intensified and focused on specific areas and therefore expedite the elimination of residual malaria from the whole region.
Highlights
Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only two countries in the Arabian Peninsula that are yet to achieve malaria elimination
Almost 94% of the malaria cases were reported in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region (AFR), while 3.0 and 2.2% of the cases were recorded in the WHO Southeast Asia Region (SEAR) and Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), respectively [1]
The current study revealed that malaria remains a public health problem in Jazan region, with a total of 1124 confirmed cases were reported among the febrile patients presented at healthcare centres during the study period
Summary
Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only two countries in the Arabian Peninsula that are yet to achieve malaria elimination. Over the past two decades, the malaria control programme in Saudi Arabia has successfully reduced the annual number of malaria cases, with the lowest incidence rate across the country reported in 2014. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 229 million new cases of malaria were reported worldwide in 2019 and over 3.4 billion people are at risk of infection [1]. Plasmodium falciparum is considered the most virulent and prevalent Plasmodium species, accounting for 99.7, 69 and 62.8% of the reported malaria cases in the AFR, EMR and SEAR regions, respectively [3]. It has been estimated that about 14.3 million malaria cases in 2018 were attributable to Plasmodium vivax and that 3.3 billion people are at risk of vivax malaria infection worldwide [4]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
