Prevalence of Malaria Parasitaemia in Three Selected Local Government Areas of Niger State, North Central, Nigeria

Introduction: Malaria- a parasitic protozoan infection, caused by Plasmodium species- is a major public health challenge in Africa. Aside hundreds of thousands of annual deaths attributable to malaria, lots of valuable man-hours- that could otherwise be put to some productive endeavours- are wasted in hospital visits and waiting time in clinics. An estimated 81% of all annual global malaria cases, as well as 91% of all global deaths that are due to malaria, occur in Africa. Therefore, the monitoring of prevalence of malaria parasitaemia is an integral part of any preventive and control measure put in place to curb the spread of malaria.

Materials and Methods: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia in three selected local government areas (LGA) of Niger State, north central, Nigeria. A total of 930 subjects were sampled from Borgu, Mashegu and Magama LGAs of Niger State. Out of these, 504(54.2%) were males, while 426(45.8%) were females. Twenty-two percent, 27.1%, 22%, 5.3%, 4.7%, 6.3%, 4.5% 3.7% and 4.4% were within the 1-5 years, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40 and >40 years age-groups respectively. The subjects were requested to complete questionnaires (self-administered for the literate ones but interviewer-administered for those who could not read and write. Also 0.5mL of capillary blood samples was collected from each of them. Thick and thin blood films of the samples were stained with Giemsa and the stained slides were microscopically examined for the presence or absence of the asexual stages of Plasmodium spp.

Results: The study recorded an overall prevalence of 51.9%. The females had a higher prevalence (53.3%) than the males (50.8%). Among the various age-groups, 1-5 years, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40 and >40 years age-groups, the following prevalences respectively were recorded; 74.6%, 48.4%, 46.8%, 46.9%, 45.5%, 44.8%, 45.2%, 41.2% and 24.4%. No statistically significant (p>0.05) differences in prevalence were found among the various occupational groups of the subjects; students (47.9), farmers (57.7%), fishermen (64.9%), cattle-rearers (57.3%) and dependants/ full-time house-wives (60%). However, a statistically significant difference in prevalence (p<0.05) was discovered between subjects who lived in thatched-roof houses and those who lived in houses with corrugated iron roofing sheets. Prevalence was also significantly higher (p<0.05) among subjects who had no formal education. From the findings of the study, one out of every two subjects had malaria parasitaemia. If this is extrapolated to the entire communities of Borgu, Mashegu and Magama LGAs, it means greater than half (51.9%) of the general populace are infected with malaria.

Conclusion and Suggestions: It is therefore recommended that the government of Niger State and the chairmen of these three LGAs should immediately put measures in place to curb and curtail the spread of malaria in these rural communities.