Challenges of Malaria Diagnosis in Paediatric Patients at a Nigerian Hospital

Retrospective Analysis of Malarial Parasitemia and Bacteremia in Febrile Episodes Seen at Tertiary Hospital at Nguru, Nigeria

“…Malarial parasitemia rate of 34.7% recorded in this study can be considered low, when compared with similar studies with higher rate (>40%) [4, 6,8,9], and lower prevalence level of 1.6% [11] and 8.9% [12]. We are of the opinion that the environmental ecology of Nguru should support higher malaria parasitemia level, as it support Anopheles mosquito breeding and transmission of malarial diseases.…”

“…In geographical location with high livestock population and pastoralist activities, zoonotic pathogens like Brucella spp, leptosporosis have been implicated in febrile illness [12,13]. Clinically, association between febrile illness and comorbdities like urinary tract infection, respiratory tract infection, gastroenteritis, age malnutrition, anaemia and HIV/AIDS had been well documented [8,11,12,[15][16][17][18].…”

“…Nigeria, is one of the malaria endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with the malaria transmission maintained by ecological factors that encourage the breeding of Anopheles mosquitoes in the communities. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control 2012 [4] malarial surveillance studies reported malarial incidence of 50.2%, while higher malaria prevalence was reported in other studies conducted in Nigeria and some sub-Saharan African countries [5,[6][7][8][9][10]. In contrast, lower prevalence in some region of sub-Saharan Africa [10][11][12] that may be attributable to WHO initiatives on malarial public health awareness and prevention.…”