Prevalence of malaria infection among children attending federal medical centre yola, adamawa state, Niageria

Author: 
Samaila, A. B., Kunihya, I. Z. and Daniel, L.

This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of malaria infection among children aged 6 months-15 years and considered only Out-Patient children at EPU, Federal Medical Centre, Yola from the months of June to November 2015. Ethical Clearance and Informed Consent was obtained. Questionnaires were used to gather information on age, gender of children and parents/guardians sociodemographic characteristics. Malaria was screened using Thick and Thin blood film. The prevalence of malaria infection was 29.2%. The malaria species found was P. falciparum.Male subjects (32.2%) were more infected than the females (25.6%) and age-group 5-9 years (34.2%) had the highest infection rate while the least was among age ≤15 years. χ2 test on the infection rate according to gender and age were both insignificant (p˃0.05) indicating gender and age were not dependent. According to parents/guardians sociodemographic characteristics, malaria infection was higher among children whose parents/guardians were unemployed (38.5%), had primary education (52.6%) and live in village setting (31.4%). χ2 test between the malaria infection and according to parents/guardians occupation, educational qualification and place of residence were statistically insignificant (p˃0.05). Considering the lower social class of Nigeria populace, malaria intervention programs should be made accessible to children irrespective of their socioeconomic status and their location.

Paper No: 
1010