The malaria burden: A look at 3 years outpatient malaria clinic visits in a university community town in Southeast of Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

One of the Nigerian vision 2020 National Malaria strategic plans is control and subsequent eradication of malaria. The present report looks at outpatient malaria clinic visits for a 3-year period with a view of ascertaining whether control measures put in place over decades are being reflected in the decline of the disease.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted at Nsukka in the southeast Nigeria using a cluster sampling method for the selection of health care facilities. Collected data included patient demography, number attendees, and the levels of parasitemia. The "Plus System Scale" was used for the grouping of detected levels of Plasmodium parasites in the blood samples and data were analyzed using SPSS (version 23).

RESULTS

A total of 9,531 outpatient malaria clinic visits which consisted of females (67.5%) and males (32.5%) were used for the report. The difference in the number of males and female malaria clinic attendees was statistically significant [P < 0.05]. Examined blood samples showed 87.25% were positive with Plasmodium falciparum parasites with various levels of parasitemia. There were also negative Plasmodium parasites blood samples with mean scores of 67 (±22.62), 92.63 (±9.97), and 353 (±179.6) for years 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. Most (43.47%) of the patients were in the age group of 21-30 and while parasitemia was seen to be higher in this group (21-30).

CONCLUSION

The incidence of malaria in the region of this study is still high despite the effects made at reducing the scourge of the disease and would need timely intervention.