Malaria Status in Relation to Risk Factors among Attendees of Two Health Facilities in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

A cross sectional study was conducted among subjects from two health facilities in Port Harcourt to assess malaria status and its health determinants. Seven hundred subjects of different ages and both sexes were investigated after ethical approval was obtained from Rivers State Ministry of Health, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Written consent of the subjects was obtained before questionnaire administration to obtain the demographic data. The uninfected subjects were used as control. Four (4) mls of blood was taken from each subject by vein-puncture into separate EDTA bottles for haematological profile tests and malaria parasite identification using standard haematological and parasitological techniques. The overall prevalence of malaria was 27%. The males had slightly higher prevalence (27.8%) than the females (26.5%), though the difference was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The highest prevalence occurred among females (48.4%) of age group <1-10yrs and followed by males (40.7%) of same age group, and followed by males of 11-20 yrs with 36.4%. From risk groups related prevalence the School children (45%) were the most infected, followed by Blood donors (35.7%) and pregnant women (26.5%). Only the Packed Cell Volume was significantly affected adversely by malaria (P<0.0001), of all the haematological Parameters tested.