Prevalence of malaria among infants 0-5 years in a Rural Community South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of malaria infections among infants aged 0 to 5 years in Obowo local Government Area, Imo State Southern Eastern Nigeria. Blood was collected from the infants also a structured questionnaires were distributed to ascertain their villages, age, sex, parental occupations and mosquitoes preventive methods before recruiting them into the study. Overall, 86 (57.3%) of the 150 children investigated were found to have malaria infection. Children between the ages of 0 and 1 years had the highest prevalence of plasmodium infections 45.3% compared with the other age groups. Plasmodium infections were commoner in the male than in the female subjects.  Children of Traders was observed to have a higher prevalence of 30.2% compared to other parental occupations. Only 22.0% used insecticide treated mosquito nets while 24.0% of the parents spray insecticides to prevent mosquito bites. There is therefore need for more awareness on effective use of drugs and Insecticide Treated bed nets in malaria hyper endemic regions.

Keywords: Prevalence Infants Malaria