BackgroundMalaria, anemia and malnutrition are global health challenges with significant morbidity and mortality, with higher rates among children particularly in Africa. Recently there has been displacement of over a million people due to different crisis in Nigeria. However, there is limited study on the public health issues facing these vulnerable populations. This study evaluated the prevalence and risk factors for malaria infection, anemia and malnutrition among children living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Edo state, Nigeria.MethodA total of 250 children up to 10 years old were included in the study in the year 2018. Malaria infection was confirmed by rapid diagnostic tests. The hematocrit level was obtained using a centrifuge microhaematocrit and converted to haemoglobin using standard conversion while nutritional status was determined from anthropometric measurements collected, and demographic characteristics were obtained by the use of questionnaire. Anemia and malnutrition were defined according to World Health Organization standards. The logistic regression analysis was used to determine associations between predictor variables and primary outcomes.ResultMalaria infection and anemia were recorded for 55.2% and 54.0% of the children, respectively while malnutrition prevalence was 41.2% with wasting, underweight and stunting occurring in 0.04%, 11.2% and 39.2% respectively. Age was a significant risk factor for malaria with higher odds of having malaria infection in children 6–10 years of age [odds ratio (OR) = 2.032, P = 0.021] than in younger children. Being 6–10 years (OR = 2.307, P = 0.015) and having malaria infection (OR = 1.693, P = 0.048) were identified as significant risk factors of anemia while being in the age group of up to 5 years was the only significant risk factor (OR for the older age group = 0.251, P ≤ 0.001) associated with malnutrition. Specific attention needs to be paid to children in IDP camps.ConclusionAnemia and malnutrition control should be integrated with existing malaria control and should include children above five years of age.

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Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease and its distribution, in space and time, can be influenced by environmental factors such as rivers, elevation, slope, land surface temperature, land use/cover and rainfall. The aim of this study is to identify the areas with suitable conditions for schistosomiasis transmission on the basis of physical and environmental factors derived from satellite imagery and spatial analysis for Akure North Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State. Nigeria. This was done through methodology multicriteria evaluation (MCE) using Saaty’s analytical hierarchy process (AHP). AHP is a multi-criteria decision method that uses hierarchical structures to represent a problem and makes decisions based on priority scales. In this research AHP was used to obtain the mapping weight or importance of each individual schistosomiasis risk factor. For the purpose of identifying areas of schistosomiasis risk, this study focused on temperature, drainage, elevation, rainfall, slope and land use/land cover as the factors controlling schistosomiasis incidence in the study area. It is by reclassifying and overlaying these factors that areas vulnerable to schistosomiasis were identified. The weighted overlay analysis was done after each factor was given the appropriate weight derived through the analytical hierarchical process. The prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis in the study area was also determined by parasitological analysis of urine samples collected through random sampling. The results showed varying risk of schistosomiasis with a larger portion of the area (82%) falling under the high and very high risk category. The study also showed that one community (Oba Ile) had the lowest risk of schistosomiasis while the risk increased in the four remaining communities (Iju, Igoba, Ita Ogbolu and Ogbese). The predictions made by the model correlated strongly with observations from field study. The high risk zones corresponded to known endemic communities. This study revealed that environmental factors can be used in identifying and predicting the transmission of schistosomiasis as well as effective monitoring of disease risk in newly established rural and agricultural communities.

Geographic information systems are being increasingly used to show the distributions of disease where data for specific environmental risk factors are available. For successful transmission of schistosomiasis, suitable climatic conditions and biological events must coincide; hence its distribution and prevalence are greatly influenced by environmental factors affecting the population of snail intermediate hosts and human hosts. Prevalence and demographic data was obtained by parasitological examination of urine samples and questionnaire administration. The mean values of environmental factors corresponding to the local government area were obtained from remotely sensed images and data from climate research unit. The effects of the environmental factors were determined by using regression analysis to analyse the correlation of environmental factors to prevalence of schistosomiasis. There was a negative correlation between infection and elevation. There was a positive correlation between vegetation, rainfall, slope, temperature and prevalence of infection. There was also a weak negative correlation between proximity to water body and prevalence. The result shows the study area to be at low to high risk of infection.