PREVALENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF MALARIA PARASITEMIA IN PERIPHERAL AND MATERNAL CIRCULATION OF PREGNANT WOMEN IN RELATION TO THEIR AGE GROUP AND GRAVIDITY.

Abstract

Malaria is known to be one of the world's most debilitating infectious diseases and the greatest cause of hospitalization and death, especially among pregnant women and young children. The study population of this research includes consented pregnant women living within the vicinity of Katsina State. The thick and thin blood smear used to determine the type of plasmodium present and the level was carried out using Giemsa stain in accordance with the guidelines provided by the World Health Organization WHO, (2016). Parasite density was determined by counting using the number of asexual parasites relative to at least 200 leucocytes in each thick blood film and assuming a mean leucocyte count of 800 (WHO,2010). Parasitemia was graded as low (Parasite < 1000), moderate (Parasite > 1000 – 9,999) and severe (Parasite > 10,000).Of the 300 study subjects that were recruited majority (59%) of them are multigravids. The main age of the participants was 27 years (27.1±0.46), with the youngest being 14 years and the oldest being 47 years. The results of microscopy revealed that, 222 (74%) of the participants harbor malarial parasites in their placental circulation while 78 (26.0%) were negative. The prevalence of malaria parasitemia obtained from peripheral blood smear indicates 180 (60.0%) of the samples shows a malaria positive result, while the remaining 120 (40.0%) appears negative. Significant difference (p<0.01) (r = 0.107, t = 10.547, df = 299, and P = .000) was observed between the level of malarial parasitaemia in the placental and pheripheral circulation. The level of malarial parasitaemia was found to be severe among primigravids, where 100% of them had placental parasitaemia whereas 95.8% of them had pheripheral parasitaemia.