European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PREVALENCE OF MALARIA AMONG CHILDREN UNDER FIVE(5) YEARS IN A NIGERIA PRIMARY HEALTHCARE CENTER, IN COVID-19 ERA

Mgbahurike A. A.*, Dibie Favour Isioma

ABSTRACT

Background: Malaria is a life-threatening disease and remains an overwhelming cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years of age, especially in sub-Saharan African region. The estimated number of malaria death was 627,000 in 2020, an increase of 69,000 deaths compared to the previous year. About two-thirds of these deaths (47,000) were due to disruptions during the COVID19 pandemic, the remaining one-third (22,000) reflected a recent change in WHO test methodology using rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for malaria. Methodology: A retrospective study of prevalence of malaria was carried out between January and July 2022 among children under five years of age who attended the Ogwashi-uku Primary Healthcare center, in Delta State, Nigeria to provide epidemiological data on the status of malaria infection in the community. A sample size was calculated, otained and used. The instrument of data collection was through information register of patients. Data analysis were performed using the statistical software SPSS. Confidence interval of 95% and a p-value > 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. Results: A total of 1365 under-5 children attended the health care center within the study period. A sample size of 300 was obtained from the calculation. There were 152(50.7%) male children and 148(49.3%) female children. The result showed a total of 224(74.7%) of the children tested positive for malaria parasite (P. falciparum). Female116(38.7%), were more infected when compared to male 108(36%), but statis tical significance is >0.05. Meanwhile, for age classifications, children aged 3>4yrs were most infected (93)(31%) followed in decending order 0 >1yr (75)(25%); 1> 2yrs 63(21%) with 4>5yrs (13)(4.3%) being the least infected age group, with p-value <0001. The result also showed that children above 2 years but less than 5years were more infected than those below 2years of age. Conclusion: Malaria has high prevalence rate in the communities and under five children are most vulnerable. This study confimed the wide distribution of malaria among under five children with a high prevalence rate]’of 74.7% which further indicates the endemicity of the infection in the community.

Keywords: Malaria, Prevalence, Under-five, Primary Health Care, Nigeria.