A Retrospective Epidemiological Analysis of Malaria in South Indian Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by parasitic protozoa of the Plasmodium type. The objective of our study was to analyze the extent of malaria cases and also to assess the factors associated with the occurrence of disease in patients attending Urban Health Centre, Jeppinamogaru attached to Father Muller Medical College and Hospital, Manglaore, India. Among population of 17,622, the case records of fever who attended the centre were scrutinized from January to December 2013. Data were collected and analyzed. A total of 1,564 slides was taken and among them 405 slides were proved positive for malaria. About 299 cases were males and 106 cases were females. Among them, 65 cases belong to the paediatric age group between 0-14 years and 203 cases belong to adults between the ages 21-40 years. The peak cases were recorded in the month of July, August and November which was 51, 53 and 57 respectively. The minimum numbers of cases were recorded during the month of January, February and March which was 19, 15 and 18 respectively. Among all the recorded malaria cases, 380 were positive for P.vivax and 25 for P.falciparum. Religion wise distribution shows more number of cases from Hindu religion suffering from P.vivax with lesser percentage compared to the Christian religion with higher percentage, but none of the cases from Christian religion suffered from P. falciparum infection. Only one mixed infection case in male was recorded in the age group of 21-40 belonging to the Hindu religion, but no P.ovale, P. malariae or P. knowlesi infections were observed in our study.