Prevalence of Malaria in Pregnant Women Attending Ante Natal Care at University of Port Harcourt Primary Health Care Centre Aluu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract. Venule blood samples were randomly collected from eighty pregnant women receiving ante natal care in the University of Port Harcourt Primary Health Care Centre after obtaining ethical clearance. These blood samples were put in EDTA properly designated bottles and taken to the Parasitology Laboratory, Department of Animal and Environmental Biology for examination. The standard thick and thin smears were used to examine the blood specimens. Overall prevalence showed that 72.5% of the pregnant women were infected with malaria. Specific Plasmodium prevalence amongst the infected showed that 63.5% were infected with P. falciparum; 18.9% for P. vivax; 15.5% for P.malariae and 1.7% for P.ovale. There was no statistically significant (P>0.05) increase in the prevalence of Plasmodium species between the primigravidea (58.6%) and the multigravidae (41.3%). The disparity in parasitemia was attributed to pregnancy induced delayed antibody expression in the primigravidae. The study emphasized the significance of health education in malaria control especially during pregnancy.

Evaluating Malaria Prevalence Using Clinical Diagnosis Compared with Microscopy and Rapid Diagnostic Tests in a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in Rivers State, Nigeria

“…The overall malaria prevalence in this study using Giemsa microscopy as the gold standard was 43.1%. The study prevalence is comparable to 46.6% reported in Zamfara State [ 15 ], 40.8% in Rivers State [ 16 ], and 40.5% in South-Eastern Nigeria [ 17 ] but lower than 72.5% in Rivers State [ 18 ], 85.7% in Enugu State [ 19 ], and 71.4% in Cross River State [ 20 ]. The study prevalence (43.1%) is higher than 15.0% in Ogun State [ 21 ] and 14.7% in Lagos [ 22 ].…”

Epidemiology of falciparum malaria among residents of some rural and peri- urban communities in Ekiti State, Southwestern Nigeria

“…Indeed, the high malaria parasite prevalence recorded in this study was also similar to the reports of previous studies in other parts of Nigeria (Greenwood et al, 2005;Asaolu & Igbaakin, 2009;Okonko et al, 2009;Iwueze et al, 2014;Ayogu et al, 2016;Umma et al, 2017;Awosolu et al, 2019Awosolu et al, , 2020. However, malaria parasite prevalence in this study is greater than studies reported by Nzeako et al (2013), Udoh et al (2013) and Simon-Oke et al (2019). The high malaria parasite prevalent in this current study can be attributed to the multifaceted prevailing environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall and forest cover which provide good breeding system for the mosquito vector.…”

Determinants of uptake of first dose of intermittent preventive treatment among pregnant women in a secondary health Centre in Maiduguri, Nigeria

“…Malaria infection during pregnancy could result in adverse consequences like miscarriage [1,2], anaemia [3,4], preterm delivery [5,6], stillbirth [7,8], and low birth weight [9,10]. High prevalence of malaria infection has been reported among antenatal care attendees in different health centres across Nigeria (South-eastern Nigeria) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. In Borno state, Nigeria, the prevalence of malaria among pregnant women was 48.1% at the state's largest secondary health centre [20]; 60.3% in its only Teaching Hospital [21] and 44.5% three years later, at the same Teaching Hospital [22].…”