Frequency of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria in school going children of Quetta (City), Balochistan

Abstract

Malaria is one of the major health problem caused by a vector borne disease of the genus, plasmodium. This parasite is transmitted through bite of female mosquito, Anopheles called malarial vector. The present work was conducted during 1 st August 2017 to 31 st July 2018 to examine the frequency rate of malarial infection in school going children of Quetta (city) A total no. of 2213 blood slides were prepared (thin & thick) from 33 different schools of Quetta (city) visited twice in each month out of 2213/433 are positive for the malaria infection. The overall positivity rate was (19.5%). However P. vivax was found to be the most common specie with the highest frequency rate (84.52%) as compared with that of P. falciparum (6.01%) and mixed infection was also seen in the present study (12.29%). The variations were found in different age groups. The higher frequency rate of P.vivax (90.8%) in the age group of 11-16 years and lowest was found (81.4%) in the age group of 3-5 years.