Malaria in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria

Type Journal Article - African Journal of Biotechnology
Title Malaria in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria
Author(s)
Volume 8
Issue 24
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2009
Page numbers 7101-7105
URL http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajb/article/download/68803/56867
Abstract
Malaria remains a major cause of mortality among children under the age of five years; it is endemic
throughout Nigeria with seasonal variation in different geographic zones of the country. Malaria
prevalence studies had been undertaken in many parts of Nigeria but there is probably no data
available from the far North Western region. This research study was undertaken to determine the
prevalence, monthly distribution of malaria in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria in order to generate baseline
information. A total of 1,297 blood samples were collected by simple random sampling, from
patients attending the two health centres over the twelve calendar months. Thick and thin blood films
were Giemsa stained and observed for the presence of malaria parasites. A total of 354 (27.29%) were
positive for malaria parasites with the highest prevalence rate being recorded in the month of August
with 72 (59.5%) positive cases and the month of March having the least infection rate of 9 (9.18%). The
infection rate according to gender showed that males had the higher infection rate of 192 (n = 635) or
30.24% than the females who had a total 162 infection (n = 662) or 24.47%. The age group 0 - 5 years had
the highest infection rate of 123 (43.77%) while the age group 36 - 40 years had the least infection rate
of 10 (9.8%). The study has revealed the presence of malaria transmission throughout the year in
Sokoto, North Western Nigeria and the infection rate can be considered as moderately high

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