Prevalence of Malaria among Children in urban area at Byahi Health Center, Rubavu District, Rwanda
Abstract
Background: Malaria is one of the most public health and life-threatening parasitic infections caused by the protozoan parasite. Since children are immunologically naive to the malaria parasite, they are the main vulnerable groups to be affected by malaria.
Aim: This study aimed at determining the prevalence of malaria among children in urban area at Byahi Health Center, Rubavu district.
Methods: Cross-sectional study was used to achieve the objectives. To obtain the information regarding social demographic characteristics, written questionnaires in native language were distributed to caregivers. Blood smears were collected and sent to laboratory department for analysis. Data were analyzed using Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS).
Results: Among 50 children who participated in the study, the majority were males over females with 58% and 42% respectively. The prevalence of malaria among children in urban area was higher with 30%. Among the participants, children of age range 1-5 years shown a high prevalence of malaria than those of 5-8 months with 13 and 2 positive cases respectively and children of 1-5 years old was statistically significant with a p-value (p 0.027).
Conclusion: After getting the results above, we have seen that children from urban area are affected by malaria with the overall prevalence of 30%. There is a need of improving and rechecking the existing malaria in children, prevention and control measures of the country. Byahi health center should create awareness about the importance early malaria checkup recommended reducing malaria infection. The parents are recommended to protect their children and district leaders should make researcher in others school. It must be reported to Ministry of Health that malaria infection mostly affects children.
Keywords: Malaria parasite, children, blood smear, Plasmodium
Keywords:
Malaria parasite, children, blood smear, PlasmodiumDOI
https://doi.org/10.22270/jddt.v14i6.6662References
Eckert, E., Florey, L. S., Tongren, J. E., Salgado, S. R., Rukundo, A., Habimana, J. P., & Karema, C. Impact evaluation of malaria control interventions on morbidity and all-cause child mortality in Rwanda, 2000-2010. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2017;97(3):99-105. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.17-0281 PMid:28990918 PMCid:PMC5619936
Galatas, B., Bassat, Q., & Mayor, A. Malaria parasites in the asymptomatic: looking for the hay in the haystack. Trends in Parasitology, 2016;32(4):296-308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2015.11.015 PMid:26708404
Kamuhanda, J. K. Review of Malaria Epidemiology in Rwanda. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR), 2016; 2(9):1241-1242.
Kayentao, K., Florey, L. S., Mihigo, J., Doumbia, A., Diallo, A., Koné, D., & Eckert, E. Impact evaluation of malaria control interventions on morbidity and all-cause child mortality in Mali, 2000-2012. Malaria Journal, 2018; 17(1):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2573-1 PMid:30428880 PMCid:PMC6236933
Maxwell, O., Mayowa, B. A., Chinedu, I. U., & Peace, A. E. Biometry Investigation of Malaria-Disease, Mortality and Modeling; an Autoregressive Integrated Approach. Americal Journal of Mathematics and Statistics, 2019; 9(1):11-6.
Nankabirwa, N. Factors associated with malaria parasitemia, anemia and serological responses in a spectrum of epidemiological settings in Uganda :kampala, ArticlePubMe, 2015;12.
Mediannikov, O., Socolovschi, C., Edouard, S., Fenollar, F., Mouffok, N., Bassene, H., &Lekana-Douki, J. B. Common epidemiology of Rickettsia felis infection and malaria, Africa.Emerg Infect Dis, 2013;19(11):1775-83. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1911.130361 PMid:24188709 PMCid:PMC3837673
Smith, J., & Adewale, A. Prevalence of malaria among children in Nigeria. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2023;228(2):256-267.
Chan, M., & Vong, S. Malaria prevalence and environmental factors in rural Cambodia. Malaria Journal, 2022;21(1):134.
Toure, M., & Kolapo, K. Drug-resistant malaria: Challenges and strategies. Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2022;22(7):861-872.
World Health Organization. (2023b). Strategies for malaria control and elimination. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/teams/global-malaria-programme/strategy.
Bizimana, J., Twarabamenye, E. & Kienberger, S. Assessing the social vulnerability to malaria in Rwanda. Malaria Journal, 2015;14(1):22-26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-14-2 PMid:25566988 PMCid:PMC4326441
Ahmed, A., Mulatu, K., & Elfu, B. Prevalence of malaria and associated factors among under-five children in Sherkole refugee camp, Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study. PloS One, 2021;16(2):890-895 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246895 PMid:33606756 PMCid:PMC7894890
Published
Abstract Display: 193 
PDF Downloads: 137 PDF Downloads: 10 How to Cite
Issue
Section
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
How to Cite
.