Abstract
Background: Febrile illness due to malaria remains a public health challenge in resource-poor countries despite concerted control efforts. Objectives: To establish a baseline database of P. falciparum distribution among febrile patients treated with chloroquine, fansidar, and quinine in Bushenyi. Methods: Standard parasitology and statistics (α=0.01) methods were adopted in the analysis of data collected from 35,000 files of febrile patients who attended clinics in Bushenyi district, Uganda in the year 2005 after the first-line malaria treatment changed from chloroquine to artemisinin-based combination. Results: There was 78.2% (27,384 of 35000) malaria prevalence among the studied 35000 febrile patients’ files, while the percentage distribution of P. falciparum among 27,384 malaria patients included; 42.8% males and 57.1% females in Kitagata Hospital; 45.1% males and 54.9% females in Comboni Hospital and 39.8% males and 60.3% females in Ishaka Adventist Hospital. Females aged 41-50 and 21-30 in Ishaka Adventist Hospital had an overall prevalence of 69.5% and 68.7%, followed by 68.4% and 64.8% from participants aged 41-50 and 21-30 in Kitagata Hospital. The highest P. falciparum prevalence among males less than 10 years old was 54.2% in Comboni and 52.4% in Kitagata. Overall malaria prevalence between January-December 2005 was highest (72.6%) in Ishaka; 34.4% in Kitagata and 22.3% in Comboni hospitals respectively. Malaria prevalence was significantly (p<0.01) dependent on age, sex, and season. Conclusion: In this retrospective study, P. falciparum pre-dominated (78.2%) malaria patients were treated with chloroquine, fansidar, and quinine. This may serve as a database for prospective evaluation of malaria prevalence in the same location. Socio-demographic and poor socio-economic status significantly (p<0.01) influenced malaria spread in Bushenyi. The cause of P. falciparum malaria persistence among the studied population despite treatment warrants further investigation. Keywords: Plasmodium falciparum, malaria patients, anti-malaria, Bushenyi,
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