Prevalence of Congenital Malaria in Minna, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The study was designed to determine the true prevalence of congenital, cord, and placental malaria in General Hospital Minna, North Central Nigeria. Peripheral blood smears of near-term pregnant women, as well as the placental, cord, and peripheral blood smears of their newborn babies, were examined for malaria parasites, using the Giemsa staining technique. Out of 152 pregnant women screened, 21 (13.82%) of them were infected with malaria parasites. Of the 152 new born babies, 4 (2.63%) showed positive peripheral parasitaemia. Placental parasitaemia was 7/152 (4.61%), while cord blood parasitaemia was 9/152 (5.92%). There were strong associations between peripheral and cord malaria parasitaemia and congenital malaria (P < 0.05). Plasmodium falciparum occurred in all, and none had mixed infection. The average birth weights of the babies delivered of nonmalarious pregnant women were higher than those delivered by malarious pregnant women, though not significant (P > 0.05). Malaria parasitaemia occurred more frequently in primigravidae than multigravidae.

Malaria Risk Factors in Women on Intermittent Preventive Treatment at Delivery and Their Effects on Pregnancy Outcome in Sanaga-Maritime, Cameroon

“…One millilitre of cord blood was collected through suction of the umbilical vein with a sterile disposable syringe. Placental blood was collected from a pool on the maternal face of the placenta [17]. These samples were used to prepare thick blood films for the assessment of parasite density.…”

Malaria in infants aged less than six months - is it an area of unmet medical need?

“…Reports of congenital malaria have predominantly come from Nigeria; the prevalence of parasitaemia in infants in these studies as well as in those from other malaria-endemic regions varied widely – between 0.7% and 46.7% [20,33,37-51]. Parasite densities in neonatal blood were also varied, although most infections were of low density [20,40,42,48-50,52,53]. However, differences in transmission dynamics, small sample sizes and lack of details on quality control and sample selection procedures make the interpretation of these findings difficult [20,25].…”

Effect of Storage and Exposure to Sunlight on the Quality of Sachet Water Sold in Ibadan Metropolis

“…The integrity of the hygienic environment and conditions where the majority of the water in sachets are produced has been questioned [6]. Apart from environmental contaminants, contamination from improper vendor handling also poses threats to the health of the ignorant consumers who often times drink without any proper cleaning of the sachets, sachet water have been reported to contain bacteria such as Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Streptococcus sp., and oocysts of Cryptosporidia sp [4].…”

“…According to [4], the inadequacy of pipe borne water supply in Nigeria is a growing problem; as a result people resort to buying water from vendors, and sachet or bottled water became a major source of drinking water. However, factory-packaged sachet drinking water popularly called 'Pure water' has outnumbered bottled water because of its easy accessibility and affordability [5].…”