Prevalence And Effects Of Malaria In Pregnancy

This study investigated the prevalence and effects of malaria in pregnancy. Malaria in pregnancy constitutes a risk for both the mother and her unborn child but there is paucity of data regarding the magnitude of the problem in our region. This study was conducted with the main objective of determining the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among our pregnant women and its consequences.Four hundred pregnant women who attended antenatal care and delivered at the UMTH, Maiduguri were studied from 24th July 2007 to 12th January 2008. They were followed from booking to delivery. Blood samples were collected at booking and delivery in to an EDTA bottle and a thick blood smear were prepared on a glass slide and read under microscope for malaria parasite while capillary tube, centrifuge machine and micro-haematocrit reader were employed for packed cell volume. Malaria parasite was also looked for in the cord blood of the babies and placental tissue using blood film and histology respectively. The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia at booking was 60.3% (241/400) and the mean parasite density was 701.04±382.22 parasite/µl. However at 12 delivery both the malaria parasitaemia and mean parasite density were lowered to 28.8%(115/400) and 405.17±310.43 parasite/µl respectively.

The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia was highest among primigravidas and secondigravidas at 77%(97/126) and 72.4%(42/58) respectively while the grandmultiparous women had the lowest prevalence of 26.7%(16/60) at booking(? 2=53.29, p=0.000) and a similar trend was also noticed at delivery(? 2=28.81, p=0.000). There was a direct relationship between the malaria parasitemia and anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia was highest, 81.8%(9/11) among those with parasite density of 1501-2000 parasite/µl and lowest at 7.1%(9/126) among those with parasite density of ?500 parasite/µl(? 2=65.62,p=0.000) at booking. Also at delivery there was increased prevalence of anaemia with increasing malaria parasite density, 50%(2/4) among those with parasite density of 1001-1500 parasite/µl compared to 6%(6/101) when the parasite density was<500parasite/ µl (?2=24.37, p=0.000). Malaria parasitaemia at delivery was associated with preterm delivery (OR=2.47,CI=1.12-5.23), low birth weight (OR=10.47 , CI=4.37-25.12) and cord parasitaemia (OR=16.89,CI=8.50-33.55).