Seasonal distribution and seven year trend of malaria in North West Tigrai: 2012–2018, Ethiopia; 2019

Abstract

Background Malaria is a serious public concern in Ethiopia, 75% of the land and 60% of the population are exposed to the disease. The disease has been consistently reported as one of the top three leading causes of outpatient visits, admissions, and deaths among all age group in Ethiopia. However, there is no published data to date regarding the trends of malaria in north western Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. Hence, knowing the trends of malaria prevalence in this area is essential to design appropriate interventions against the disease. Methods Institutional based retrospective study was conducted to determine trends in prevalence of malaria from documented laboratory logbooks at Suhul General Hospital, northwestern Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. All recorded malaria cases from January 2012 to December 2018 were carefully reviewed and analyzed from the laboratory logbooks. Additionally, any malaria intervention activities applied in the area were collected by a checklist. Beside, data related to temperature and rainfalls were collected from metrological office of Shire-endasilasie town. Results During the seven years (2012–2018) data, a total of 71,986 blood films were requested for malaria diagnosis in Suhul Hospital and 5010(6.96%) microscopically confirmed malaria cases reported in the study area with fluctuating trends. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax were the dominant parasites detected, which accounted (2516; 50.2%, 2181; 43.5%) respectively. However, individuals aged ≥15 years (3628; 72.4%) and male participants (3142, 62.7%) were found highly infected with malaria parasites. Despite the yearly abundance of malaria cases, highest prevalence was reported in autumn (September–November) in the study area. Conclusions Malaria is still a major health dilemma Northwestern Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax were unmoving predominant parasite reported in the study area. Overall, trend of malaria over the years showed no significant reduction or increment. So, strong scaling up of the community should going on towards transmission, prevention and control activities of malaria in view of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax.

Five-Year Trend of Malaria Prevalence in Mojo Town, Central Ethiopia: Shifting Burden of the Disease and Its Implication for Malaria Elimination: A Retrospective Study

“…Here, the prevalence was markedly lower than previous studies conducted in several parts of the country such as in Dembia (21.8%), 8 Dembecha (16.3%), 21 Guba (51.0%), 19 Sibu Sire (20.1%), 22 Arjo-Didessa sugar development site (33.4%), 23 Harari (46.9%), 24 Chalia district (7.6%), 25 Abeshge (33.8%), 26 and Bale Zone (66.7%). 27 The prevalence of the present study was also relatively lower than the findings from other parts of Ethiopia like Northwest Tigray (7.0%), 6 Wereta (5.4%), 28 Kombolcha (7.5%), 18 Ataye (8.4%), 29 Halaba (9.5%), 7 Wolkite (8.6%) 30 and Arsi Negelle (11.5%). 31…”

“…Nevertheless, males were more affected than females, which is consistent with previous studies in Ethiopia. 6–8 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 27 This gender difference in malaria prevalence could be since males are frequently bitten by mosquitoes due to their behavioral differences such as working outdoors, little chance of sleeping under bed nets, and travel to endemic areas for labor work. 48 Moreover, hormonal differences might play the role in such a way that testosterone was associated with decreased adaptive immunity against malaria.…”

Five Year Trend Analysis of Malaria Cases in Adama, Boset and Lume Districts of East Shawa, Oromia, Ethiopia

“…Concerning malaria cases detected by species from the blood lm, the present study revealed that out of 47,016 con rmed malaria cases 53%, 41% and 6% showed P. falciparum, P.vivax and mixed infection, respectively. The present study nding is in agreement with the previous reports (Tesfaye et al, 2018;Berhe et al, 2019;Alkadi et al, 2020). The predominance of P. falciparum was consistent over the ve years with slight seasonal variation.…”

Field efficacy of ethnomedicinal plant smoke repellency against Anopheles arabiensis and Aedes aegypti

“…Malaria is a serious public concern in Ethiopia, 75% of the land and 60% of the population are exposed to the disease. The disease has been consistently reported as one of the top three leading causes of outpatient visits, admissions, and deaths among all age group in Ethiopia ( Berhe et al., 2019 ). There are about 5–6 million annual confirmed malaria cases in Ethiopia ( FMOH, 2012 ).…”