PREVALENCE OF MALARIA INFECTION IN CHILDREN ATTENDING EMERGENCY PAEDIATRICS UNIT AT USMANU DANFODIYO UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, SOKOTO - NIGERIA

Abstract

Prevalence of malaria infection in children has been a cause of concern in this part of the world, the sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims at determining the prevalence of this deadly infection in children attending Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) Sokoto. One hundred and twenty four (124) capillary blood samples were collected from patients attending the Emergency Paediatrics Unit side laboratory. The 'gold standard' method was applied using Giemsa stain to carry out the investigation. Both thick and thin blood films were investigated for malaria parasite concentration and specie identification respectively. Out of the 124 samples collected, 82 (66.13%) were positive and 42 (33.87%) were negative for malaria infection. 49 (39.52%) were males positive for the infection and 33 (26.61%) were females also positive for it. Of all the positive samples children within the age range of 0 – 5 years took the highest figure of 72 (58.06%) while the other age group of 6 – 10 years had a relatively lower figure of 10 (8.07%). However, using Chi-square test of independence, statistical analyses suggest that there is no statistically significant association between the distribution of malaria infection and age or gender. It was determined from this study that P. falciparum is incriminated with about 84.15% of the cases of malaria infection in this study area.